Mind, Body and Soul
by Yuuki-Neechan
Summary: A new baddy appears and is intent on making an army, the first order of business is a powerful henchman. Enter Ichigo. It seems that all the other characters have a chance of saving the day now. set after Winter War... Brainwashed!Ichigo. No Pairings.
1. Strangers In The Dark

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :)

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter One: Strangers In The Dark.

Kurosaki Ichigo lay sleeping in his bed when a Hollow reiatsu and a beeping awoke him. Ichigo slowly blinked and yawed widely before he sat up, stretched and looked over to his desk where his Shinigami Badge was blinking incessantly at him. Using his reiatsu, he tracked the Hollow and found it was in down town Karakura but its reiatsu was as low as the average hollow. Grabbing the badge, Ichigo pressed it to his chest to pull his soul out and then pressed the badge to the yellow plushi Kon's head to transfer the Mod Soul Pill to his empty body. Kon slept through this and didn't even stir when Ichigo slid his window open and jumped out into the cool night.

As he made his way to the location of the Hollow, Ichigo flared his reiatsu slightly to tell his friends; Chado, Inoue and Ishida, as well as Urahara and his father that he was going after the Hollow. This was something that they had come up with just lately to stop everyone emerging to fight a low-level Hollow. Ichigo stopped on the top of a house to wait for the others to acknowledge and sure enough felt Chado's reiatsu soon after, confirming that he would leave the Hollow to him. Ishida, Inoue Urahara, his father and another Shinigami flared their reiatsu within a thirty seconds and Ichigo set off again. This method was a good one to ensure that only one person went to deal with a Hollow at a time, and if say Chado was about to go and fight a Hollow but Ishida wanted too, all Ishida would have to do was flare his reiatsu twice in a row and Chado would wait for Ishida to take over, before leaving. Of course, that didn't happen often. Unfortunately for those with high spirit energy, they always woke up at night when a Hollow appeared and this idea (Ishda's, of course) gave everyone confirmation of who was fighting, so they could go back to sleep. Ichigo remembered what Ishida had also said when he first mentioned the idea…

_*Flashback*_

"_- With this idea, it gives the rest of a chance to sleep, or if it's during the day it stops everyone wasting their time" Ishida finished, pushing his glasses up his nose a little more. Ichigo nodded in agreement, as did Inoue, but Urahara had a question_

"_Ishida-san. What about if the Hollow if too strong for the fighter or they get injured and need help?" The store manager asked and Ishida smiled as if he was waiting for someone to ask_

"_Well, if the Hollow was too strong, or they got injured then they would flare their reiatsu a specific way." He said smugly, "How about we flare our reiatsu three times if the Hollow is too strong, but if we are injured then we flare our reiatsu for five seconds…if the fighter is unconscious then his or her reiatsu would drop and that would also alert us to injury" Ishida suggested and everyone agreed. Even if everyone was asleep, a drop or long flare of reiatsu would wake everyone up because they would realise subconsciously that it's not right when fighting for that to happen._

_*End Flashback*_

Ichigo laughed slightly when he realised that another Shinigami…probably one that was sent to guard to town had also given confirmation for him to fight. The idea was obviously catching on. Ichigo had to admit that the infuriating Quincy had good ideas.

Ichigo finally reached his destination and landed on the grey pavement in the middle of he deserted high street, it was three in the morning after all. Ichigo's eyes were immediately drawn to the out-of-place spectre in front of him and he drew Zangetsu. The caterpillar-like Hollow with its customary bright white Hollow mask roared, shaking the area around itself by the sheer pitch and volume of its cry and Ichigo put his left hand against his head, feeling like he was becoming deaf. When the prolonged roar finally ended Ichigo shook his head experimentally to clear the buzzing and dizziness before jumping up high and landing in front of the Hollow.

"You're so weak I can beat you in my sleep" he bragged to the Hollow, which probably didn't understand, but it made Ichigo feel better anyway. He shunpo'd forwards in a flash and raised his sword, cutting the Hollows mask and following the cut all down the long body to the tail. Ichigo landed lightly and turned back to watch as the Hollow faded into the dark night and its reiatsu vanished along with it, leaving the town peaceful and Hollow-free.

Ichigo looked around the street, normally there was a reason Hollows came to the human world, a spirit or being of high spiritual power, but he couldn't sense anyone nearby, which left the spirit option. Ichigo carefully glanced around, but the street was barren from what he could see, but just because he couldn't see them…didn't mean they were there.

"You can come out now…the monsters gone" he ventured without much hope, but to his surprise a figure appeared from the alleyway between two shops.

The girl was older than Ichigo with waist-length black hair and beautiful grey eyes that looked quizzically at Ichigo as she stood just in the light of the street, but still far enough away to run if necessary. Ichigo noticed her apparent shyness and lightened his tone to appear less threatening.

"Hey are you okay?" Ichigo asked in the most comforting tone he could

"N-no n-n-not really" she stuttered and blushed,

"What's the matter?" Ichigo questioned, although he probably knew the answer

"I'm….d-d-dead" she mumbled and Ichigo walked a step closer to her, smiling reassuringly.

"Would you like me to send you to heaven and away from the monsters?" he enquired. The girl nodded slightly held out her hand to him.

"C-can we go down here?....I-I-I like it in the…the…the dark" she requested and Ichigo nodded, walking forward and taking her hand as gently as he could. She turned and looked towards the near-black ally and then glanced back at Ichigo who again smiled encouragingly. Ichigo felt slightly odd about the whole situation, but reminded himself that she was just a scared soul, although she seemed more scared than some of the younger spirits he'd met in his time. Then again, death affected people in different ways.

The black-haired girl led Ichigo down the quiet ally and he followed cautiously, and he followed, but it suddenly dawned on him why he felt uneasy. He hadn't felt any reiatsu from this girl, like he would with any normal spirit and wondered if she was hiding it subconsciously. The girl stopped quickly and Ichigo held up his sword

"Nanami, Ami?" the girl said timidly and a soft male voice spoke out of the darkness beyond them

"Kaori?"

"H-hai" she replied with only a slight stutter. Ichigo noticed that she had relaxed a bit now and found out why seconds later.

A female and male had moved stealthily out of the shadows and marched towards them. Both had black hair and grey eyes like the other, they must be siblings or close friends. The male, Nanami, had moved behind Ichigo and looked at him closely, as though inspecting him

"Is he powerful?" Nanami asked and Kaori nodded

"Very, he gives off high amounts of reiatsu and he fought and killed that Hollow with minimal effort" she answered smartly, surprising Ichigo with her sudden change in personality.

"Hey what's going on here?" Ichigo near enough yelled, tired of being inspected like a puppy about to be brought by an owner.

"Our master wanted someone powerful that could protect her and help her build her army" the other girl that must be called Ami sneered.

"Master? Army?" Ichigo questioned, trying to find out enough information in case there was a war, which sounded like a very realistic idea at that moment by what these three were saying.

"Yes, Hisa-sama" Kaori answered him, "she wants to build an army of powerful shinigami, maybe a few Visored and some powerful humans"

"And you think I'll willingly join an army and help recruit?" Ichigo said in a warning tone, the situation had been turned upside-down from the simple soul burial he was hoping to complete before getting back to sleep.

"We never said anything about willingly" Ami mocked and Ichigo brought his sword up to her neck, and turned to the Kaori.

"Right, here's what is going to happen, were going to Soul Society and your going to explain yourselves, and if you refuse to cooperate I'll kill this one" he said scathingly. Of course Ichigo didn't wan to have to hurt the soul, even if the soul burial and slashing her with his sword had the same result.

"Our orders must be completed, loosing a life doesn't matter as long as our mission is a success" Nanami said carelessly whilst still scrutinising him. And looking around, Ichigo noticed that none of them cared that he was holding Ami ransom, even the girl herself.

Ichigo held in his rage. War had helped him greatly with thinking things through and be less irrational and angry when in situations.

"You saw my power right?" Ichigo asked after a moment and the others nodded "Then you know you have no chance of taking me anywhere." Ami glared and looked at him, slowly pulling his sword away from her throat spoke in a vicious tone

"Who said we were taking you anywhere?"

Now Ichigo was confused

"So let me get this straight" Ichigo said "Your life or death orders are to get me to be some servant to a person I never met, help her build an army, protect her and your gonna do this without taking me anywhere?" he summarised

"Basically yeah" Kaori said

"And how in hell are you gonna manage that?" Ichigo demanded

"With this" Nanami said, holding up a small canister with silvery liquid swirling around inside, he to the cap off which revealed a sharp pointed needle. Without anymore said he plunged the needle into Ichigo's neck, which he hadn't at all expected, in fact he'd expected a fight of some description.

The world tilted as the silvery liquid was introduced to his system.

"This will slowly infuse with your blood" Nanami whispered gently to him "You will belong to Hisa-sama within 72 hours…that's three days you have to say goodbye to your friends"

"Hisa-sama is generous, she will treat you nicely" Kaori murmured

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?" Ichigo yelled, Nanami and Kaori looked at him compassionately

"Hey we all felt the same too at first" Ami sniggered.

Ichigo felt lightheaded, whatever was working its way through his system didn't seem too good. He needed Inoue, and fast.

"You will come and find us once it's completely in your system" Nanami said and the three turned on their heels and swept away, leaving Ichigo alone.

"Well this sucks" Ichigo groaned and used his Shunpo to get out of the ally and onto the building above.

Ichigo breathed out and sat down, if whatever that thing was was like a poison he shouldn't move too much right? But the dizziness and light headedness was already fading and he was starting to feel better now.

"What the heck was that, and those weird guys?" he wondered.

Ichigo laid back, feeling better now and then realised he needed to go and sleep, he would ask Inoue at school the next day, but he couldn't help feeling uneasy about what they had said, three days? An army, and who was this Hisa person? He should tell Soul Society about this.

Mind made up Ichigo decided to go home and catch some more sleep before school the next day, he left his reiatsu at his normal level so any of the others that were awake and worried about him would know that he was fine.

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**A/N: First chapter of many, Do you like it? Should I continue or not? I need you readers to tell me.**

**Thanks for reading. Mimz**


	2. Time Is Ticking

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Two: Time is Ticking

It was four in the morning when Ichigo returned to his bedroom; it'd taken him 10 minutes to get home. According to those freaky kids, Ichigo had only 72 hours or so until he "Belonged to Hisa-sama" and he wasn't pleased with the idea, especially as he had school in 4 hours. Ichigo muttered profanities under his breath as he transferred Kon back to the lion plushi and jumped back into his own body. Sleep soon claimed him.

**68 Hours Left**

The alarm rang loudly in the silent room and Ichigo slammed his hand down on the snooze button and turned over in an attempt to get back to sleep.

"ICHIGOOOOO" the door banged open and Isshin ran through the door in a flurry and kicked Ichigo in the side. "IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL!!!!"

"SHUT UP" Ichigo jumped out of bed, an angry mark pulsing over his head as he kicked his father hard in the stomach

"I have nothing left to teach you my boy!" Isshin beamed, standing up and brushing himself off as Yuzu came in and dragged him downstairs with promises of extra breakfast.

Ichigo changed in the silence after his fathers departure and looked at himself in the small mirror in the bathroom

"I don't feel any different…maybe those kids were joking" he said to himself, but knowing he was probably in denial. He sighed and took a last look at himself before wandering downstairs and eating breakfast before heading off to school.

At school Ichigo decided to wait for lunch before asking Orihime to see if she could heal him or find out what the silvery liquid was. All through the first lesson Ichigo noticed Chad, Orihime and Ishida glancing at him quite often, finally someone passed a note to him from Ishida, which he carefully opened under the desk and read quickly:

_Ichigo_

_What have you done?_

_Your reiatsu is fluctuating, it doesn't feel like you. Why didn't you go to Orihime's last night if you got injured?_

_What happened with the hollow last night?_

_Ishida_

Ichigo looked over and saw Ishida scrutinising him closely, Ichigo motioned that he'd tell him later and Ishida nodded reluctantly before facing the front again.

Ichigo sighed quietly and laid his head down on his desk. He could feel something…a twinge of longing, but Ichigo couldn't figure out what it was for. He hoped Orihime would be able to do something and he couldn't help thinking about what the kids had said about this 'Hisa-sama' her want of an army and protection. It sounded like she wanted a right-hand man.

Ichigo went into a doze and only woke up for 5 minutes at the beginning of the next lessons, he was thinking dazedly about what he would say at lunch to the other three.

**64 Hours Left**

The bell rang for lunch and Chad came over to Ichigo, shook his shoulder, and led him up to the roof with Ishida and Orihime in tow.

"What happened Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime said as she called her two healers out and made an oval over him.

"I killed this hollow and then this ghost came and I said I would give her a soul burial and she took me to this ally where two other ghosts like her were and then the next thing I know they stick this needle in my neck and tell me I only have 72 hours left" Ichigo summarised, leaving out the details of 'Hisa-sama'

"72 hours until what?" Chad asked

"Until I belong to this woman called Hisa-sama" Ichigo said unwillingly, trying to act nonchalant.

"It's like a poison, spreading through your system, it has its own reiatsu" Orihime said quietly "I can't reject it" she murmured a few minutes later and stopped her efforts. "I think that we need help with this"

The others nodded went downstairs and out of the gates towards Urahara's shop.

**63 Hours and 30 Minutes Left**

The Urahara Shop was being cleaned as usual by Ururu while Jinta tried to hit pieces of trash with the end of his broom. He stopped when the four approached them.

"Urahara-san is in the training ground" Ururu said politely and stepped aside to let them pass.

"Arigatou Ururu-chan" Orihime said as they passed into the small shop front. Ichigo walked silently with them deep in thought, that longing feeling was still there but a little stronger and he remembered that those kids had said he only had 72 hours until he belonged to that woman, was this longing he felt for her?

"Ahh Ishida-kun, Chad, Inoue, Ichigo…how can I help you?" Urahara said smoothly as he walked towards them from behind a rock. Ichigo ignored the others as they began telling the shop owner what he had told them, and began thinking again. Belonging to this Hisa woman meant that the silvery liquid must be something that controlled his actions…but those type of things didn't exist and even if they had found a way he was sure he could use his immense amount of reiatsu to stop himself…

Ichigo stopped when he felt eyes on him and looked at the others to find them all staring at him as though he was meant to be answering something

"What?" he frowned

"I asked you if these three ghosts said anything else of importance" Urahara said

"Urm…only that this Hisa woman wants me to join her and help her build an army of shinigami, Visored and a few humans" Ichigo summarised again. He looked at Urahara who seemed to be travelling through lots of emotions at once. Confusion was defiantly there, and interest, some fear…and was that…respect!

"This could be a problem" Urahara finally said "And I don't think I can help"

"Why is that?" Ishida said, pushing his glasses up his nose a little

"Because I know the woman that did this and it's not something I can reverse…but maybe Soul Society can…I'll open a portal for you" he said and stood up

"Wait a second, you know this woman? Then tell us about her" Ichigo said impatiently

"I am not qualified to do that, I'm sure the Captain-Commander will explain it all" Urahara finished and opened the portal which a black Hell butterfly flew out of to guide them, Urahara let the butterfly land on his finger and it sat there comfortably while relaying a message.

"It seems that your fluctuating reiatsu has caught the attention of Soul Society…they want me there also" Urahara said with a slight frown on his face. Soul Society had lifted the ban of Urahara and all of the Visoreds after the war but they all remained in the living world anyway, although now they were on good terms with the Shinigami. Ichigo understood Urahara's confusion at his requested presence because Urahara didn't go to Soul Society at all even with the lifted ban so this would be his first time back in a long time.

Ichigo used his Shinigami badge to pull out his soul and they went into the portal.

**63 Hours Left**

The five appeared near the centre of the Court of Pure Souls a little while later and found the 12th Division captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi waiting for them.

"Ahhhh, Ichigo-kun" the captain breathed as he swept forwards to inspect him quickly. "I'm here to escort you and the others to the meeting." He turned and swept off and a fast pace, but not shunpo'ing as Chad and Orihime couldn't do that.

Ichigo let his thoughts run around, mostly thinking about the scenery so he wouldn't start thinking about the problem at hand, he didn't like the look on everyone's faces from before when he dazed off thinking about it.

They arrived at the First Division a short time later and Kurotsuchi led them into the meeting room where all the other captains stood silently.

"So you finally arrived" the captain-commander said gravely "then we can begin…Kurosaki, you reiatsu has been fluctuating far beyond their normal parameters and we have found no reason why that would be seeing as there have been no hollows since yesterday…would you please fill us in on what has been occurring on earth?"

Ichigo opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by Urahara who looked very serious.

"According to Ichigo he defeated a hollow yesterday and found a soul nearby, the soul took him to two others and they injected him with substance that seems to emit its own reiatsu. Ichigo also said that the souls told him he would 'belong to Hisa-sama in 72 hours.'" All the captains turned to face Ichigo once again and Kurotsuchi had a huge smile on his face that freaked Ichigo out.

"I see why you are concerned Urahara, her reiatsu was spotted on our metres which is why I called you" Yamamoto said to Urahara then turned to Ichigo "Can you tell us what the souls were like?" he asked.

Ichigo looked around, all the captains looked quite tense, and whatever was happening didn't seem very good if all the captains were this serious about it, even Kenpachi looked concerned. Why did the captain-commander what to know what the souls were like anywa-..

"Ichigo?"

"Oh yeah sorry" Ichigo said after a pause, forcing himself to stop before the captains thought he was going nuts. "There were three of them. Two girls and a guy, the one that led me to the others was called Kaori and the other girl was called Ami, the guy was called Nanami…and I think they were all family…" Ichigo said but was cut across by Byakuya

"Why do you think that?" he asked

"Oh because they all had black hair and silvery-grey eyes" Ichigo answered, getting annoyed with the consent interruptions. He took a deep breath to calm himself, being angry never helped in battle and wouldn't help here.

The silence dissolved into whispers and Ichigo was now under even closer scrutiny by ….well everyone.

**A/N: There, Second chapter up. Hope you liked it, and sorry it took so long to put up, I couldn't think how to finish the chapter. **


	3. Explanations and Longing

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Three: Explanations and Longing

**62 Hours and 30 Minutes Left**

It was hard to hear what everyone was saying now; the captains had grouped together and were talking over each other while Urahara was talking quietly to Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

Finally the Captain-Commander called for order and the other captains lined up in order again.

"It seems we have a problem" he said gravely and Ichigo looked around to Orihime, Chad and Ishida, they were confused too.

"What do you m-" Ichigo started but was cut off again, this was annoying him now

"I think I should explain first" the Commander continued like Ichigo hadn't interrupted. "Hisa Tsukou (_A/N: I wrote it first name then last name instead of the other way round like it normally goes in Japan_) once worked under Kisuke here when he was the Captain of the 12th division. She was a third seat I believe but she had a lot of talent…would you continue Kisuke?" the Captain Commander asked, turning to him.

Urahara nodded and turned to the four, "Hisa was a wonderful scientist, and she had theories about everything you could think of. But she started doing experiments of her own that were forbidden in Soul Society."

"What sort of experiments?" Ishida asked

"Experiments on mind control" the Captain-Commander answered "But she never perfected the technique before the Central 46 found out… she was exiled from Soul Society and the last known location of her was in the real world…Northern Japan if I remember correctly" he finished and looked at Ichigo and the others.

"Why was she not executed?" Ishida asked, always on the ball.

"Because I pleaded in her defence" Urahara said "she was my subordinate after all, I took half of the punishment for her like any Captain would"

"What was your punishment?" Orihime asked, captivated by the story.

Urahara thought for a minute "I guess it was a type of parole" he answered, his tone closing the subject.

Orihime and Ishida turned to each other and started discussing all they had heard while Chad and Ichigo just listened.

Ichigo looked towards the floor and withdrew into his own thoughts again while the attention was off him. If this woman had managed to perfect her experiments on mind control then there was an overwhelming chance that Ichigo would be under her control in…

_*Flashback*_

_The world tilted as the silvery liquid was introduced to his system._

"_This will slowly infuse with your blood" Nanami whispered gently to him "You will belong to Hisa-sama within 72 hours…that's three days you have to say goodbye to your friends"_

"_Hisa-sama is generous, she will treat you nicely" Kaori murmured_

_*End Flashback*_

Ichigo shook his head to rid himself of the memory, but he remembered every detail. Those three had talked about the woman with such admiration… loyalty, they had sounded so happy. Even Ami, when she had said that they all felt the same way at first but now even she had that same loving tone. That unwavering loyalty sounded nice. Like Ichigo could let go of all the responsibilities and let someone else give him the orders, let someone else shoulder the responsibilities that hovered constantly over him. Wait. That's not right, Ichigo never thought like that, he didn't want someone to boss him about….did he?

Ichigo turned away. Disgusted with himself, and walked right into Chad, who was standing behind him.

"Ichigo?" Chad asked in a deep but calming voice, and all the noise hushed as the Captains, Orihime, Ishida and Urahara looked at him. Ichigo turned and looked at the concerned faces of them all.

"Urm…I…Just wanted some air" Ichigo invented.

"Fine but first tell us your opinion, do you agree?" the Captain-Commander asked and everyone looked at Ichigo again, waiting for an answer.

"Uhhhh, Yeah I agree" Ichigo ventured and was relived when the Captain-Commander nodded. But his stomach dropped when the Head Captain continued

"Then you should report to the 12th Division after dinner, it is 3o'clock now so you should be there at 9 tonight." Ichigo did a quick calculation in his head. 11 hours had passed, so he had only 61 hours left to him. He would be with the 12th Captain at 9 tonight…in six hours. So from then he would have only 55 hours of torture… Ichigo shuddered.

**55 Hours Left**

Ichigo felt like he was walking to his own painful death, but flanked by Chad and Ishida, he had no chance to escape. He really should have listened early and then he wouldn't be walking to his death.

Inside Lieutenant Nemu was waiting for them and led them silently down a very long corridor. She stopped at one of the doors and went inside, motioning the three to follow.

Inside was a laboratory, it was quite large and in the centre was a table…with straps on. Ichigo turned very quickly and tried to dart out of the door when he saw this but was stopped by Chad.

"You should have been listening earlier then you wouldn't be here right now" Ishida said, then leaned towards him a bit and whispered "its okay, Chad, some of the Captains and I will be here to make sure he doesn't hurt you." Ichigo was led into the room by Nemu and told in her quiet voice to wait. Ichigo stood beside the table looking around the room. There was a large monitor on the wall that the table faced, so the table occupant could see it. Behind the table head where the occupant wouldn't be able to see was an array of items on movable tables, Ichigo didn't like the look of these items.

The door opened and Captains: Kurotsuchi, Ukitake, Hitsugaya, and Kuchiki walked in. the latter three walked to the wall to the left of the table, on the opposite side from the door and stopped, standing along the wall beside Chad and Ishida. Leaving Ichigo and Captain Kurotsuchi alone in the middle of the room.

"Okay Kurosaki" the Captain said, "Lay on the table and we can get started" he said gleefully. Ichigo took a step back, looking at Ishida and Chad, they nodded to him and Ichigo sighed.

"Fine, lets get this over with" He grumbled, reigning in his anger and fear before laying on the table, "I'm not getting tied" he added darkly.

"We have no choice" the mad 12th Captain said before he and his lieutenant quickly strapped him down. Ichigo let his anger break through at that moment.

"LET ME UP YOU SICK SON OF A BI-"

"It seems Kurosaki is a little agitated" Kurotsuchi said over the din, grinning slight. "You know what to do Nemu." The young women shunpo'ed over to another work surface and retrieved a little round object.

"IF YOU DON'T UNTIE ME RIGHT NOW I'LL K-"

Ichigo stopped.

"What did you do Kurotsuchi?" Ishida demanded.

"It's a neural sedative" the Captain said "It doesn't go into the bloodstream because that would interfere with our readings on the drug Kurosaki has been given. But it interfaces with the brain and lowers the neural functions"

So in other words, Ichigo had been put to sleep…or near to it. The teenager's face was blank, and his eyes were half open but he wasn't moving, the little object that the lieutenant had gotten was sitting on his forehead.

"Okay I'm going to take some blood samples to analyse" Kurotsuchi said to the assembled Shinigami along the wall. The Captains proceeded to tell the other Captains what he was doing as he did it; they were obviously there to stop him experimenting on the teen.

Kurotsuchi got three samples of blood and left two in a rack, he put the third under a microscope that was connected to the large monitor and started adding chemicals here and there as he searched for the drug. He made a noise between a grunt and a snort.

"This will take a while" he muttered.

**53 Hours Left **

It was 11 at night when the Captain finally managed to separate the drug from Ichigo's blood. There was a small amount of silvery liquid in a vial.

"I think this is the drug" the Captain said and sent a Hell Butterfly to Urahara so he could come and help him synthesis more so it could be studied. Kurotsuchi didn't like the idea of getting help but the woman had been Urahara's subordinate.

Said ex-Captain appeared in the room a little while later and began discussing the drug.

"I believe that it would be easier to ask Ichigo if this is it" Urahara said, hiding his face with his fan. He walked over to Ichigo and pulled the little device off his forehead and wait patiently while Ichigo blinked and tried to think again.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, a little drowsily. Kurotsuchi ignored him and held up the little vial.

"Kurosaki, is this the drug?" he asked impatiently, Ichigo looked at it.

"Yeah, it was silvery like that" he answered.

"Then you are no longer needed for blood samples, you can leave but stay inside the Court of Pure Souls" he said and unstrapped him.

Ichigo sat up and grumbled under his breath while Chad and Ishida came forward to meet him, glad that they would be getting out of the brightly lit lab.

"That wasn't too bad Ichigo, it could have been worse" Ishida said to shut him up

"Is your hair darker?" Chad asked suddenly and everyone turned to look,

"It does look darker"

"Yeah actually, I wonder why"

"Interesting"

The Captains spoke while they departed, leaving the two scientists together to work. Ichigo glowered and stood up and quickly finding himself on the floor, dizzy.

"How much blood did you take?" Ichigo muttered

"Enough" the 12th division Captain responded, while Chad pulled Ichigo up and led him out.

Everyone seemed worried about Ichigo, except Ichigo himself. What did it matter if he had darker hair! But one thing Ichigo did know right now…he was very tired.

"Where am I sleeping?" he called to the Captains in front of him.

"Captain-Commander Yamamoto has stated that you will be staying at the Kuchiki residence…you would know that if you had listened at the meeting earlier." Byakuya said icily.

Ichigo gritted his teeth as he thought about the coming hours; he was not looking forward to it. But he was tired.

"Fine then" he mumbled, "Lead the way _Captain_" Ichigo said as he, Chad and Ishida followed the 6th division Captain towards his house.

**A/N: Still liking it? I'll try and get the next part out by the end of the week. Review if you like. :) :D**


	4. Guinea Pig and Arguments

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Four: Guinea Pig and Arguments.

**52 Hours and 25 Minutes Left**

Ichigo, Ishida and Chad made their way towards the noble's house in silence, Chad and Ishida kept giving Ichigo side-long glances as they supported him in his walking, Kurotsuchi had taken at least 20 blood samples from Ichigo over his time in the Lab and the blood loss had taken a toll on the Shinigami.

Ichigo stumbled yet again as they stopped outside the gates to the Kuchiki residence and waited for the doors to be opened. He muttered under his breath and the two could only assume that it was about Kurotsuchi.

The doors opened and they were greeted by two women, a black-haired servant in a plain brown kimono who bowed and welcomed them, and an orange-haired woman in a shinigami robe…

"Inoue?" Ichigo asked, surprised. Ishida looked and then blushed a little, he had forgotten how good she looked in Shinigami robes, the last time she had worn them was in their invasion of Soul Society.

"Hello Chad, Ishida, and Kurosaki-kun" she said, smiling at them.

"Why are you wearing those again?" Ishida asked as Captain Kuchiki motioned them to follow him and they began walking again.

"Oh, apparently we should look more like Shinigami when we are here to draw less attention to ourselves" Orihime said as they began walking through the old style house.

"Draw less attention to what?" Ichigo asked as they passed out of the house and began walking around the outside of the house past the gardens.

"Were hero's here" Ishida answered for her and the girl nodded, giggling.

"The males are in this room" Byakuya interrupted stopping outside a room, Chad and Ishida bowed and towed Ichigo into the room before he could say something stupid. "Inoue-san, Rukia has expressed a wish for you to share her room, it's down here" he continued and walked away with her.

Chad and Ishida deposited Ichigo on the middle futon and settled themselves either side of him. Ichigo was about to lay down when another servant came into the room with sleeping yukata for them and then left again. The three got changed with little spoken and went to sleep soon after…

**48 Hours Left**

Ichigo opened his eyes and sat up quickly. He looked around the pitch black room; he could feel someone there,

"Whose there?" he asked the darkness,

"It's me Ichi" answered a beautiful silky voice,

"Don't call me that" Ichigo growled, "who are you?"

"Can't you guess?" was the reply

"…Hisa?"

"Correct Ichi, I see you are still fighting me and I find that very good, it means you are strong…and soon that strength will belong to me"

"Show yourself" Ichigo said, standing up and raising his reiatsu slightly.

"I think I will wait for the grand reveal, I want to see your face glow when you see me for the first time" she replied.

"What do you want with me?" Ichigo sighed, sitting down again. He couldn't seem to keep angry at her for long.

"I see your nearly in my control…and that is what I want…you, my own right-hand man, a personal body guard to begin with, but you will eventually be the head of my army." Ichigo jumped up at this, angry again.

"I refuse to be a guard for you, you bitch, and I won't head an army for you either. What would you need an army for anyway?!" he said in forced calm.

"For my reign" she answered simply. "And I will begin making my army soon, only 2 more days Ichi, I have been kind…giving you three days to say your goodbyes, you should thank me, you will have a high position"

"REIGN?...OF WHAT, SOULD SOCEITY, THE WORLD…" Ichigo shouted his reiatsu rising with every word.

There was no reply.

"ANSWER ME!" he continued and was about to start again when she spoke,

"I will take me leave now Ichi, 2 more days and I will tell you everything" she said.

Ichigo heard a swishing of a robe and was suddenly was blinded by a light. He shielded his eyes from it.

"Ichigo?....Ichigo?"

The light was gone and Ichigo found himself in a room full of people. He looked around and found all the Captains and half of the Vice-Captains standing in the tiny room along with Inoue, Rukia, and his two friends that had been in the room to start with, Ishida and Chad.

"Ichigo?" he turned to the speaker and found it to be Renji.

"Yeah?" he sighed.

"You wanna explain that little fit you threw?"

"What?" he replied irritably

"Ya know the shouting and reiatsu growing 'til most for Soul Society can feel it."

Ichigo shrugged wearily and sat down,

"That woman came" he said

"…."

"What?" Ichigo said

"No-one was here except me you and Chad" Ishida said, "You were imagining it…you were talking to someone, but there was no-one here"

"She was, I heard her" Ichigo said,

"Maybe she's using the poison to get to you without actually being here" said Urahara, hiding behind his fan. "Tell us what she said, we could only hear your responses."

Ichigo sighed and began his explanation of what had happened, while Kurotsuchi took notes. When he finally finished everyone let him to sleep. Ichigo was so tired her fell asleep almost immediately with no more thoughts.

**40 Hours Left**

Ichigo sat up slowly and yawned, he was in the room alone and sunlight was streaming through the open door into the room. Ichigo got changed slowly and walked to the door, he stopped when he heard Ishida and Chad talking outside the room while looking into the garden, and Inoue was there also. He couldn't see her but he could hear her. They were talking about last night…apparently he was talking to nothing and getting angry and it had attracted the notice to many people because of his reiatsu. They had been scared…of him?...no…of how he acted towards Hisa…

Ichigo could stand anymore and went to get his sword, making sure to make some noise so they knew he was awake.

"Morning" Inoue said when he walked out into the sunlight. "We are meant to take you back to the Lab for neural testing today because of last night" she said brightly, standing up and leading the way. Ichigo wasn't really looking forward to it. He lost hours of time there, time he didn't have.

All too soon Ichigo found himself strapped to the table again in the Lab with the same people standing against the walls, Inoue had decided to go somewhere else with Rukia. But Ichigo privately though that Rukia had taken her away purposely so she didn't have to see Ichigo being experimented on.

Kurotsuchi came in with Urahara and together they began attaching devices to him, a heart monitor, some type of machine that watched his reiatsu fluctuations, another device that sat on his forehead that took readings of his brain patterns and machine that was inserted into his bloodstream and started pumping blood out of him and into a machine before going back into another part of him arm. Urahara explained this machine to him.

"We made it last night, we believe that it will separate the poison from your blood" he said simply. "We aren't sure if it will work but it's worth a shot" he said, smiling behind his fan.

"Great" Ichigo muttered. "Just don't put that thing on me again"

Ichigo sat quietly this time, he seemed to have withdrawn into himself and was staring at the ceiling as though it didn't exist, his eyes glazed.

"Is he okay?" Ukitake asked while Urahara and Kurotsuchi went from instrument to instrument, taking notes and passing information quietly. Kurotsuchi didn't even seem to mind working with Urahara.

"He's fine, he's just thinking" Urahara said, pointing at the large screen as he transferred the information from the brain scanner onto it. "It's showing high amounts of delta waves which shows he's thinking…quite a lot actually" Urahara said, monitoring the screen. He started writing some notes on the brain scans.

**39 Hours Left**

"His hair is even darker" Chad said suddenly, walking closer to him. "And his eyes look…grey." Everyone crowded around him and he suddenly snapped out of his reverie "What?" he asked, a bit creeped out that everyone was looking at him.

"Look at this" Urahara said to Kurotsuchi and everyone looked at the big monitor, the delta waves had lessened "Ichigo what were you thinking about?" he asked and everyone looked at him again. Ichigo looked away, "Where you thinking about Hisa?" he asked and Ichigo nodded slightly. "Interesting" he said and wrote down some more notes while everyone else returned to the wall.

Most people had never seen Ichigo without his customary frown, but Chad had noticed something, and so had Ishida. They caught each others eye and nodded to confirm their suspicion. His face was becoming more relaxed, he still was showing no emotion like with his frown mask, but the relaxed face he had on now was the same. He didn't even seem angry at being tied to a table, or upset about the whole situation. The only emotion he was showing was calm…composure.

**A/N: Sorry its took ages to post this, and i know there is lots of dialogue but it was needed. Next chapter will be better.**


	5. Appearance of Three

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Five: Appearance of the Three

39 hours was last chapter. So now it should be 38 that's 2pm

**38 Hours Left**

Ichigo was staring through the ceiling again. His thoughts were far away in the real world, he was tracing routes from the Soul Society gate to the forest…he didn't know why, but he was drawn to a particular clearing that was at the dead centre of the forest. His whole body…no, whole soul was pulling him towards that spot. He knew at least seven different ways to get to that spot now.

The idea of having someone to take orders from, to take the control and responsibility was becoming very appealing to him as he lay on the Lab table. If someone gave him the orders, he could concentrate fully on following that order without having to think about the consequences or implications that followed. The burden that normally sat on his shoulders felt like it was slowly being lifted and it felt amazing.

Ichigo allowed a lazy smile to drift to his face as the echo of the world around him disappeared into the mist. He could see that clearing in his head, feel the breeze and smell the grass. He could see three people, their features sharpening with every second. It was the three from the alleyway. Ami, Nanami and Kaori, and they were absolutely glowing with happiness, their features lit up into graceful smiles as they looked at him. They looked beautiful, the black hair contrasted with the pale skin and their grey eyes softened their faces.

In Ichigo's opinion, Kaori looked the best, her long black hair was being blown back by the wind and her large expressive eyes held only contentedness, Nanami was standing to her right, the same expression set into his features, and his short spiky hair ruffling in the wind. Ami was to Kaori's left and had slightly shorter hair than Kaori, she held a smirk but her eyes told the true story. All of them looked so happy working under Hisa-sama…

Ichigo wanted that happiness, he wanted to protect the three in front of him with his power, and the feeling of friendship was so strong with them. He had met them once, but maybe that was enough.

"Ichigo?"

Ichigo reluctantly brought himself back from…wherever he had been and looked up at Ishida expressionless for a minute before remembering where he was.

"Yeah?" he answered, shifting a little to get more comfortable.

"We're going to eat" Ishida said as he and Ukitake freed him from the able.

"You can also have a rest until 4pm" Ukitake added as they all walked away. Looking back Ichigo saw Urahara with an uncharacteristically sombre look on his face as he looked over his notes.

After eating at Byakuya's house with Ishida and Chad, Ichigo left and went up to the highest point in Soul Society, and watched the horizon.

"Anythin' interestin'?" a voice asked and Ichigo looked to his left and Renji sat himself beside the orange-haired Shinigami.

"Not really" he answered

"Hey…I was wondering what you were thinking about earlier, ya know, in the Lab"

"Nothing really" was the response,

"…you know, Hat'n'clogs is worried, he says that the machine to take out the poison isn't working. An' you keep driftin' off into la la land."

"Really?" was the uninterested reply.

"That woman's gonna take you Ichigo! Don't you care!" Renji said, jumping up from his place next to the teen.

"Hisa-sama is kind"

"WHAT? YOU'RE CALLIN' HER HISA-SAMA NOW!?!"

Ichigo didn't say anything to this and carried on looking out towards the horizon, eventually Renji calmed himself enough to sit down again.

"Okay Ichigo, I know that this poison is doing something to ya. But you gotta fight it… fight her." Renji said.

Again there was no response to his pleads, Ichigo was looking away from him, to the blue sky. There was silence for a minute until Ichigo said one thing

"I think you will understand soon"

With that he got up and shunpo'ed away, leaving Renji to mull over the implications of this one statement.

No-one heard from Ichigo in the remaining time he had left before he had to come back for more tests. Everyone with any reiatsu capabilities could feel where he was, but no-one came to speak to him. At 4pm on the dot, he appeared at the door of the Labs.

**36 Hours Left**

Ichigo walked into the room that had Ishida, Chad, Ukitake, Byakuya, Urahara and Kurotsuchi in. sitting on the bed Ichigo noticed another person in the corner. It was Kaori.

Ichigo started to speak, but she made a hand motion to stop him, he stopped and settled himself on the table, letting the Shinigami tie him down again and insert the machines.

"Ichi, don't say anything, or they will know your talking to me. I will try and answer some questions for you, we can now trust that you will not tell them" she said, pointing at the Shinigami "the poison is imbedded deep enough into your soul now, you can't betray us"

Ichigo nodded slightly to show he understood, trying not to attract the notice of the others he looked up at the ceiling like he had before.

"Good, well. I think I will start with the poison. It contains Hisa-sama's reiatsu and it works around the body and sinks into all the vital systems, including the brain and soul. It doesn't hurt your own reiatsu in any way. I guess it gives you a longing to be with her…reiatsu is always connected to its owner after all…But it's more than that, it…overpowers your own reiatsu, it wraps around yours, the layer is very thin and can't be sensed but that is what it does and this means that it has to go past hers to be used…" she paused for a minute to let this sink in before continuing

"Because it has to go past hers it has to agree, say if you tried to use it to attack her it would not work because reiatsu would never destroy its owner. Understand?"

Ichigo nodded

"This also means that we all have a piece of Hisa-sama in us, so we can communicate. I used the link to project myself into your mind, which is why only you can see me. The link only just became strong enough for me to do this. A few hours ago we could only bring you to us." She smiled at the obvious achievement. "We cannot communicate telepathically, we can project like this, and we can send each other feelings, emotions and even pain. We can project pain to someone else if we cannot handle it, or need to concentrate fully on fighting"

After this Kaori sat on the edge of the table and talked some more, about Hisa-sama, the plan, and also her own life before and after Hisa-sama appeared to her.

**35 Hours Left**

Kaori was still sitting on the table, but by now she had lapsed into silence, watching the two mad scientists talk and compare notes to ones taken a few hours ago.

"They seem worried…to them, you're condition seems to be worsening" she stated suddenly and Ichigo looked at her. "Well, the poison is spreading more so I guess they are correct" she ended and stood up, walking to the other Shinigami and humans in the room, inspecting the oblivious souls as they stood watching Ichigo and the experiments.

Urahara turned to them, "I believe that we have a way to stop the poison until we can get rid of it." Kaori turned to him and listened in. "I think that if we completely seal his reiatsu we can seal Hisa's too and stop the spread of the poison."

Kurotsuchi and Urahara began finding suppressive devices that were strong enough for Ichigo's reiatsu.

"It will not work, but the principle of the idea is good" Kaori muttered to Ichigo as they placed a device on his chest and turned it on.

"Whoa…" Ichigo said after a few minutes, "I'm tired." Kaori went to his side,

"It is okay Ichi; I am still here which shows you that this is not working. Nanami, Ami or I will stay with you from now on and help you through the last day and a half you have." Ichigo nodded his thanks as he drifted. Having all of his reiatsu suppressed at once had made him very dizzy, weak and tired. It felt like having too much blood missing and his heart going into shock.

Ichigo went to sleep. His body couldn't sustain consciousness with the sudden drop in reiatsu.

**30 Hours Left**

When Ichigo next woke up, Nanami was standing beside him.

"Hey Ichi, they took the suppressant off you, they found out it wasn't working. Took their sweet time though ne?"

Ichigo struggled to wake his mind up before addressing Urahara

"Hey Urahara, what's the time?"

"You're awake Ichigo. The time is 10pm, I think we're nearly done for the night" he added "the suppressant didn't work; we have to think of a new way to stop the poison. We only have 30 hours left, we're running dangerously low on time" he said as he unstrapped Ichigo from the table and helped sit him up. Urahara looked troubled. "Go eat and sleep, we'll see you in the morning"

Ichigo got up and walked out with Nanami while the rest followed behind.

Back at Byakuya's, Chad, Ishida, Ichigo, Inoue, Rukia and Byakuya ate while Nanami sat invisible beside Ichigo and was telling him jokes to try and make him laugh, which would look would look weird if he started laughing for no apparent reason, so Ichigo ate with a determinately straight face.

Unfortunately for Ichigo, Nanami had hundreds of jokes.

Kaori and Ami went on a camping trip. As they lay down for the night, Ami said:" Kaori, look up into the sky and tell me what you see?"  
Kaori said, "I see millions and millions of stars."  
Ami: "And what does that tell you?"  
Kaori: "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorogically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"  
Ami: "Somebody stole our tent." ……………………..Well Ichigo?"

Again Nanami was ignored; though Ichigo had a slight smile on his face.

"Did you hear about the restaurant on the Moon?

Great food but no Atmosphere." Nanami recited.

Ichigo was trying to stop himself smiling now, otherwise the other people in the room would get suspicious.

"Q: What did the Ami say to the buxom waitress (reading her name tag)?  
A: 'Debbie'...that's cute. What did you name the other one?

Q: What do you call Ami between two brunettes?  
A: A mental block.

Q: What do you get when you offer Ami a penny for her thoughts?  
A: Change.

Q: What did Ami name her pet zebra?  
A: Spot."

That did it Ichigo burst out laughing to the surprise and confusion of the humans and Shinigami in the room

"You know Ami's going to kill you if she finds out" Ichigo said eventually as he calmed down

"Then don't tell her" Nanami said, winking conspiratorially "actually, she'll be taking over soon"

Ichigo shook his head in disbelief; he wouldn't be able to keep a straight face if he looked at her.

"Ichigo?"

"Yeah Rukia?"

"What are you laughing about?"

**A/N: Okay thought I'd end it on a high, the last 24 hours are coming up soon and that's gonna be angsty, so I thought I'd put in some humour. How did you like the chapter? Review and tell me. **


	6. The Plan Part 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Six: The Plan (Part 1)

**29 Hours and 30 Minutes Left**

"I thought of something funny" Ichigo said lamely in response to Rukia's question.

"What was that?"

"Well it won't be funny if I repeat it now" Ichigo said, trying to fake annoyance.

The others finished their meals in silence, looking worriedly at Ichigo who seemed to be losing his mind. After dinner Byakuya herded Ichigo, Chad and Ishida to bed with some comment about Ichigo needing rest for tomorrow.

Ichigo laid in his futon between Chad and Ishida, waiting for them to go to sleep. Nanami had faded away and been replaced by Ami. According to Ami the link wasn't strong enough for more than one of them to project at once yet. But Ichigo felt like she was lying, like something was wrong with what they had told him… But still, he wanted to see them all again.

"What are you feeling lonely for Ichi? It's depressing for the rest of us having to feel that" Ami grumbled and Ichigo suddenly felt a wave of contentedness wash over him, followed closely by three others. "Our combined feelings can overthrow yours Ichi" Ami said. Ichigo nodded as he allowed the four waves to engulf him.

Looking left and right he saw that Chad and Ishida were asleep and made to get up.

"Wait" Ami sneered suddenly. "They're pretending you idiot"

Ichigo made his move seem like it was just him getting comfortable and lay down again.

"Listen. Just go to sleep for a bit and I'll wake you up when they go to sleep, okay?"

Ichigo nodded and closed his eyes.

**27 Hours Left**

Ichigo was shaken slightly and opened his eyes,

"Hey, they're defiantly asleep, just be quiet, come on" Ami whispered and made her way out to the garden. Ichigo stepped over Ishida and followed her.

The two sat down on the wooden boards outside.

"You know, I was right" Ami taunted

"About what?" Ichigo asked quietly

"I told you that we all felt how you did at the beginning, and now look at us"

"I guess" was the answer. Ami stood up and walked to the garden pond to look at the Koi fish.

"Kaori told me she filled you in about Hisa-sama's and her plan" _(A/N: Last chapter, just after Kaori talked about the poison) _

"Yeah" Ichigo breathed.

"I need to tell you how to escape Soul Society, you must know by now that we're in the human world"

Ichigo nodded

"Okay, this is the plan Hisa-sama came up with…" Ami went back to Ichigo's side and whispered in his ear.

"They'll think something is suspicious" Ichigo retorted quickly.

"You won't fail Ichi, it's an order from Hisa-sama" Ami shrugged

Ichigo's eyes flashed bright silver and he nodded,

"Right, I won't fail" he said emotionlessly, a relaxed look forming on his face.

The two sat in the silence for a while before Ichigo made his way back to the room and lay down. The plan would work as long as Soul Society acted how Hisa-sama thought they would.

Ichigo lay down and watched the ceiling, only a few more hours.

**24 Hours Left**

"Ichigo?"

"I know" he replied, sitting up

"They still think you have time left?"

"Yes"

"Okay, let's leave; go speak to the Captain-Commander at about 6. Until then I would advise you to do something normal"

"I'll train"

**22 Hours Left**

Ichigo made his way to the First Division; he was let in by the Lieutenant and led by the 3rd seat to the Captain-Commanders room.

"Ichigo, what brings you here so early?" asked the old man as he sat behind his desk.

"I want to go and get some things from my house…figured I'd be here a while" Ichigo answered, a frown adorning his face,

"You seem like yourself today" the Captain noted

"Yeah I've felt more myself since last night"

"Urahara and Captain Kurotsuchi told me that their device didn't work" answered the Captain suspiciously.

"Yeah that's what they said, but I dunno. I can just think better now"

"I did not approve of you going to the Real World a few hours ago, but I feel that it would be safe for you for if you had guards. Hisa's reiatsu is being monitored is currently on the outskirts of the 90th district. I stress the fact that you should have some guards. Go to the gate in one hour." The much older man said warily. The Real World seemed to be the safest spot at the moment and he had actually been considering sending the boy back with the 12th division to carry on their testing.

Ichigo walked out of the First division and went back to the underground training facility for the remaining hour, he had to act like he normally did, frown and all.

**21 Hours Left**

The gates to the Real World were crowded as Ichigo made his way to them. The whole 12th division seemed to be there along with big carts that Ichigo supposed were full of equipment. Along with the 12th division were: the 6th division captain and vice, Rukia, the 10th division captain and vice, the 13th captain, the 5th and 3rd seat of the 11th division, Inoue, Chad, Ishida and strangely, the 2nd division captain Soifon. Ichigo stopped short.

"What an odd compilation" Kaori noted as she fazed into view beside Ichigo. He nodded and continued to walk forward until he stood beside Renji. "We are waiting on the other side…be ready" Kaori said and Ichigo nodded slightly again. She faded away and Ichigo turned his attention to Renji and Rukia. Both of whom were staring at him.

"What?" he asked, frowning

"Nothing Ichigo" Rukia said and moved away towards her brother.

"What was all that about?" Ichigo asked Renji

"You look exactly like ex-vice Kaien" Renji muttered to him. Ichigo tugged at his hair and saw that it was completely black.

He had heard about the relationship between the ex-vice captain and Rukia during the war. Rukia had sat next to him at the end of the first day and told him the story. Ichigo never understood why she told him until a few days later. The 12th seat of the 13th division had gone up to Ichigo and asked for orders, much to Ichigo surprise as he had been teamed with the Visoreds. When he asked the 12th seat why the young-looking man had apologised and told him he looked exactly like their ex-vice captain. Ichigo realised his hair looked almost black in the light because of the blood he was covered in.

Ichigo shook his head and brought himself back to the present. Renji had a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry… I reminded you" the Red head muttered.

"It's fine" Ichigo said quickly and moved away towards Captain Ukitake. "When are we leaving Captain?" Ichigo asked the sickly man.

"Now I think Ichigo" was the reply, accompanied by a smile. Ichigo nodded and the walked towards the now-opening gate.

"Okay, Captains around Ichigo, Vice Captains are to protect the 12th division and their equipment" said a voice from above and Ichigo looked up to see Urahara standing above everyone's heads. The shopkeeper continued to organise the Shinigami.

"Okay let's move out" shouted the man a few minutes later.

As one the Shinigami began to move through the gate. Urahara was leading the way with Soifon behind him; Ichigo was behind Soifon with Byakuya to his left and Toshiro to his right. Ukitake was behind him. Inoue, Chad and Ishida were behind Ukitake with Ikkaku and Yumichika on either side of them. Renji, Rukia, Matsumoto and Kurotsuchi were protecting the equipment along with the 12th division at the back.

The train of people and cart moved slowly along the Severed World pathways towards Urahara's shop, where the Real World 12th division was to be temporarily set up.

**Real World**

The gates opened into Urahara's underground training room and the queue of people was released from the small paths into the huge room. The 12th division began setting up along the wall with the flattest ground nearby. Ichigo stood with his guard in the middle of the set up, watching as his friends began helping out wherever they could.

Ichigo still found it strange that Ishida tolerated the Shinigami enough to help them…but then again he was a gentleman, and he had seen a small girl who looked no older than ten years old trying to lift a huge machine off the cart. Ishida and Chad had begun helping her and now the small girl was telling them where to place the objects in a timid voice. Inoue, on the other had, was 'helping' in her own way with Rukia, by attempting to make sure all the equipment had been transported. Kurotsuchi was yelling at everyone... Ichigo felt sorry for the 12th division members.

Ichigo watch as Urahara and Chad unearthed a huge cage from the last cart. They place it in the centre of the equipment, a little way away from the wall. It was clear that this cage was the centre of all the machinery. His heart sank.

"Hey Toshiro…I'm not going to be in there am I?" Ichigo asked

"Its Captain to you Ichigo, and yes you are" was the reply.

Ichigo took a step back and turned around, thinking in his head that he would not be put in that cage, unfortunately for him, Ukitake was right behind him and stopped him within a second.

"It's good to see you acting more like yourself Ichigo" Ukitake said, smiling serenely as he turned Ichigo back to the preparations and held both of the teenager's shoulders tightly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you don't like the idea of being imprisoned, but yesterday you didn't mind being tied to a table which was worrying. So it is good to see you more like yourself" Ukitake responded easily. "Urahara and Captain Kurotsuchi believe that something they did yesterday worked because you are behaving more normally today, they believe that the effect was delayed, so they will retest you soon."

Ichigo smiled slightly. The perfect plan. Ichigo glanced up to a large rock and saw Kaori and Ami sitting and watching the proceedings interestedly. Their reiatsu was hidden and Ami's Shikai release was hiding them from the view other humans and Shinigami. The plan was perfect…and now all they needed to do was wait for the signal.

**A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, I got stuck. Hope you liked it and I will try and get the next chapter up soon. There will be some action next chapter. **


	7. The Plan Part 2

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no 

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Seven: The Plan (Part 2)

**NOTE: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITIED, PLEASE RE-READ TO UNDERSTAND THE CHANGES.**

**Under Urahara's Shop**

The equipment was set up promptly and all the 12th division members seemed to have a job, either at the machines, computers or taking notes on readings.

Ichigo and his guard were standing to the side of the metal cage and Ukitake still had his hand on Ichigo's shoulder to prevent his escape. Ichigo meanwhile was waiting for the signal…

-

Kaori looked at Ami as they sat on the rock, invisible to everyone except their newest friend.

"Ichi does not look happy" Kaori commented to the girl next to her.

"Who would be, being with corrupt Shinigami like them" she said, nodded down the flurrying Shinigami "And those humans aren't any better" she added, disgust overlaying her tone.

"Relax Ami, It wouldn't do if Ichi began attacking them because of your negativity against them" Kaori said

"Yeah, I'll cool it…for now"

"Thank you, is Nanami still outside the 90th District?" Kaori continued, ignoring Ami's last sentence.

"Nah, Hisa-sama told him to come back after Ichi left Soul Society, he's taking the longer route to be safe" Ami answered, she and Nanami were quite close and could lock onto each other easier than Kaori could with them. "Should be here just before Hisa-sama comes"

Kaori nodded and they two fell silent and watched the commotion below.

-

"Hey Ichigo" Renji said, "come 'er' for a sec" with permission from his 'guard' Ichigo was allowed to walk a few metres away with Renji. "What's goin' on with ya?"

"Eh, what do you mean Renji?" Ichigo asked

"Something seems wrong with ya tha' I can't work out" Renji said, thinking hard as he tried to put his hunch into words.

Renji stood silently for a second while he was thinking and Ichigo noticed someone waving, he looked up and saw Nanami standing beside Ami and Kaori, the three put their thumbs up at him and Ichigo nodded slightly to show he understood.

"I got it!" Renji announced "You're not real"

Ichigo blanched, "Of course I am Renji!! What the hell?"

"No I mean that your faking it, you're only trying to act normal but I can tell it's an act, it's wrong from how you normally are" Renji declared and waited for the reaction.

Ichigo smiled at him, his eyes flashing silver.

"I guess you know me too well" Ichigo said, letting the frown slide off his face to be replaced by a relaxed smile. In a flash Ichigo pulled his sword from over his shoulder and smashed the hilt of his sword into Renji's forehead, causing him to fall.

"ICHIGO" a voice behind him shouted and Ichigo shunpo'ed forwards and jumped onto the rock that Nanami, Kaori and Ami were on. Ami quickly hide him from view and they surveyed the situation below them.

"Nice hit Ichi" Nanami said appreciatively

"Thanks" was the reply.

-

"Ichigo?"

"Ichigo where are you?"

All the Shinigami and humans were wandering around, trying to track his position, Renji looked especially pissed off and had his sword out as he searched, blood was running down his forehead but he refused treatment from Ururu in favour of shouting

"Ichigo get yer ass over here now!" the red head seethed.

-

"How are things progressing?" said a soft voice and Ichigo looked beside him to see the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Hisa-sama had a graceful air about her as she took a step forwards and greeted Ichigo,

"Ichi, it's nice to see you looking so happy" she said gently, laying a soft hand on his face. Ichigo could see that she was the most dazzling person in the room by far, yet he wasn't blushing, nor did he feel shy. If truth be told he felt close to her. He had an admiration for her that he had never felt before and Ichigo new in that second that he wanted to protect her, make her ideals come true.

Her blonde hair shimmered as she lent down to look into his eyes and his brown eyes locked with her golden ones for a brief second. "Ichi, you're ready to protect me aren't you?" she asked gently and Ichigo nodded,

"Yes, Hisa-sama"

"Good, then let's get this plan over with, we still have to get passed the Shinigami down there and back to the operations base" she straightened up and took another step forwards, her golden fighting Kimono swaying around her.

"But first" she said, turning back to him. "You need to put on this" she said holding up a silver fighting Kimono. Ichigo looked around and saw that Nanami, Kaori and Ami were wearing the same thing. He nodded and got changed quickly while Nanami gave him a hand by shielding him from Kaori and Ami.

"I think we are ready, my Lady" Nanami said with a flourish and a low bow. Hisa-sama smiled at his antics before turning back to the still searching Shinigami.

"Okay then Ami, lower the barrier" she ordered lightly and waited as the shield dissolved back into Ami's sword.

While the five were waiting to be noticed, Nanami was positioning everyone in a low voice, "Ichi, stand to Hisa-sama's right. I'm on the left. Kaori you go beside Ichi. Ami you're beside me"

"Up there! Ichigo, what are you doing?" Ishida called to him while materialising his bow.

Renji turned, "ICHIGO GET DOWN HERE" he shouted.

"I think that I should explain something to you all" Hisa-sama said in a carrying voice. The Shinigami all turned to her and waited apprehensively.

"Good, now I think I should mention something to you all. Ichi here" she motioned to him "is now working under me"

"But the poison, he still has at least 20 hours." Inoue said, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

"Why would he still have 20 hours my dear?" Hisa-sama asked.

"You said he had three days, so he should have 20 hours left" Inoue answered.

"Did I say three days?" Hisa-sama asked in mock confusion, "I'm sorry…I meant two days."

Silence greeted this statement. So the golden-haired woman continued

"If I had told you it was only two days then you would not have let him come to the Real World. I'm sorry to say that I tricked Ichi too, but I don't think he minds."

Ichigo nodded in agreement to this, but otherwise said nothing.

"We aint gonna let you take him" Renji growled

"The choice is not yours to make, its Ichi's... Ichi would you like to come with me?" she asked and Ichigo looked at her,

"Yes, Hisa-sama" Ichigo replied, smiling a little at her.

"Then its settled" she said, clapping her hands together like a happy child.

"We will not let you take him" Ukitake said, stepping forwards and drawing his sword. The other captains and vice-captains followed suit.

"Well, I think we will be fighting our way out" she said, looking at her four followers. "Ichi...who should fight whom?" she asked the silent soldier.

"I think only one fight is necessary to put your point across, Hisa-sama" Ichigo answered.

"I agree, not many of them would want to fight you, you are an ally of them after all" Hisa-sama said softly. "Which Shinigami is the most cause for concern to you?" she asked

"Byakuya…he will fight me even if I am an ally. He will not hold back like the others may" was the prompt answer.

"Did you hear that Byakuya?" Hisa called through the crowd. "Ichi would like to fight you"

"No way!" Renji said, stalking over to his captain, "Captain let me fight him, I migh' be able ta get through to 'im" Renji said.

Byakuya looked at Renji for a minute.

"I think that would be best Vice captain Abarai. That leaves the rest of us free to fight the woman and other three fighters."

Renji bowed a thanks and jumped up to Ichigo's level, stopping in midair

"Let's fight Ichigo" he growled, "I'm gettin' you back for earlier"

Ichigo nodded and jumped forwards, stopping a few metres from Renji, also standing in midair.

"HOWL ZAMBIMARU" Renji shouted, and his blade formed into a segmented blade. Ichigo hefted Zangetsu off his shoulder as the bandages around it loosened and fell. The two opponents pointed their blades at one another for a brief second before they both shunpo'ed forwards and crossed blades, each hitting the other with a fierce clang.

The two broke apart for a second and then tried an attack from a different angle, the swords clashing once again. Ichigo and Renji both pushed against their swords, trying to unbalance the other.

"Ichigo, fight her, I know you can" Renji said as he launched his sword towards him, Ichigo knocked the attack aside with his sword and ran forwards to attack Renji's undefended side. The red head pulled his sword back into one stable piece just in time to stop Ichigo's attack on him. "Fight her you idiot" Renji said harshly as he pushed against Ichigo's

"I can't" Ichigo replied monotonously as he drew his sword back and slashed forward again. The tip of Ichigo's sword cut Renji's face and a small line of blood appeared on his face.

"Why can't you?" Renji seethed as he jumped back a metre to gain space for his next attack.

"Can you attack yourself?" Ichigo asked as he readied his sword.

The two fighters flew forwards again but Renji extended his sword and knocked Ichigo's aside and plunged the serrated edge into Ichigo's outstretched arm.

"What do you mean?" Renji asked as he jumped back, Ichigo didn't answer for a minute as he glanced around the other fights going on before looking back to Renji.

"You'll understand soon enough" Ichigo said as he shunpo'ed forwards yet again.

-

**Nanami's POV**

On the other side of the training grounds, Nanami was fighting against the 10th captain (according to the white coat) and was only just about keeping up with him, he felt lucky that the captains and some of the vice captains had limiters on, otherwise he, Ami and Kaori would be in a worse position than they were now. Kaori was fighting a raven headed girl a few hundred metres away and Ami was fighting a bald man on the ground. The 12th division Shinigami were doing something on their machines but Nanami couldn't think about that.

Deflecting another blow that was aimed at his head, Nanami did a quick search and saw that Hisa-sama was fighting…Byakuya his name was, and another captain with white hair. The other captains and vice captains were on hold, waiting to take over if the need arose. He looked to Ichigo and saw he was injured but he wasn't sending any of the pain down the link to the three of them, so he must know that they were less powerful and needed to concentrate.

The 10th captain wasn't very talkative but he was skilled in fighting.

Deflecting another blow, this time aimed at his side, Nanami thrust his sword forwards, past the captain's outstretched arm and managed to cut his shoulder slightly, but instead of the captain jumping back like expected, he swung his sword to the side and then into Nanami's side, digging the freezing blade deep into his body. Nanami stopped the pain being broadcasted through the link like Ichigo had done but that didn't stop him crying out in pain as he fought to stay conscience.

"Give up now, and your sentence may be reduced" the captain said as he paused in his attack. Nanami pulled up his sword quickly and tried to do a surprise attack but the captain was fast-learning Nanami's style of sneak attacks and blocked it without a thought. "You are out of your league" the captain continued.

Nanami smiled and brought his sword up again, "What sort of guard would I be if I did that?" Nanami asked before vanishing from sight and appearing behind the captain, Nanami managed to graze the captain before the other stopped him again. "No choice" he muttered and swung his sword down to his side. "RELEASE…KASUMI" he yelled and mist exploded from his sword and covered the area a hundred metres around the two. "The fight starts here" Nanami called to the captain before launching an attack.

-

**Kaori's POV**

"Sing, Wakana" Kaori whispered and ran a hand along the blade, which changed into a crescent moon shape. The raven-headed girl didn't release her Shikai; she obviously thought that she could win without it. Kaori felt a bit insulted about it but let it go. She ran forwards and delivered a blow to the other, which was quickly deflected, the raven haired girl brought her sword forward and slashed at Kaori's arm. Blood quickly began running down from the wound but Kaori glanced at the other fighters and found that Ichigo seemed uninjured; she projected the wound to him and then blocked the next attack.

"How did you do that?" demanded Kaori's opponent

"With the injury?...its a secret" she smiled and parried the next attack before delivering a blow to the ravens head with the hilt of her blade like Ichigo had done earlier with the red-head. The girl obviously hadn't expected it and fell to the ground. Kaori knew that the girl was recovering and hadn't actually been injured badly but the break was welcome. She looked around and saw that Hisa-sama was having fun with her opponents. Ami and her opponent both had insane smiles and Nanami looked a bit troubled with his opponent which was obvious because he too had released his Shikai. Ichigo, on the other hand was fighting his opponent with apparent ease while speaking to him.

A shadow appeared behind Kaori and a sword plunged through her shoulder. The girl screamed and couldn't stop the raw pain and surprise that flooded down the link towards the other three followers of Hisa-sama.

**A/N: I'm not great with fight scenes. I've never done one before; it's harder than I thought. But I will get better. Review and tell me what you think. **


	8. The Plan Part 3

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :)

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Eight: The Plan (Part 3)

**NOTE: THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITIED, PLEASE RE-READ TO UNDERSTAND THE CHANGES.**

**Ichigo POV**

The whole room froze when Ichigo, Kaori, Ami, and Nanami all howled in pain and clutched their own shoulder…only one of them was injured in the shoulder but they all seemed to feel it except Hisa-sama.

"Interesting" cackled Kurotsuchi and went to one of his machines, everyone could hear him, "I wonder if they all react to emotional pain as well as physical pain" the mad scientist wondered.

"Ichigo" Renji said, "stop this, you don't know what your doing but you can fight it" he appealed but it was all on deaf ears.

"Ichi" Hisa-sama called, he looked up at her. "I have an order for you"

Everyone stayed silent as Ichigo flitted to her side in an instant; Byakuya and Ukitake were the closest to Hisa-sama and Ichigo and could see that his eyes were bright silver.

"I would like you to bring Kaori here so she can be treated and then disable the humans and Shinigami long enough so we can escape." Ichigo nodded "Use as much power as you need" Hisa-sama continued.

Ichigo shunpo'ed to Kaori and brought her to the rock that Hisa-sama was standing on. Then stood in front of her and brought his sword in front of him and supported his right arm with his left hand and shouted "BANKAI" and let the reiatsu swirl around him.

When the blue sparkling reiatsu cleared everyone could see Ichigo in his Bankai, he held his left hand across his face and gathered more reiatsu

"Damn" Renji growled, bringing up his sword

Ichigo drew his hand across his face and his Hollow mask appeared.

"Don't take too long Ichigo" Hisa-sama said and he made a motion to show he understood before disappearing.

The 12th division were down before they understood what was happening and Yumichika was next, suffering a slash across his back.

"Only ugly people attack from behind" he muttered as he fell.

Ichigo could be seen for a second as he stopped in midair before he shunpo'ed off again and took down Matsumoto with a swift slash across the stomach. Ikkaku was next and managed to block a few hits before he suffered a stab wound through the upper thigh and fell.

Everyone was ready and trying to block Ichigo but he was too fast in Bankai and even faster with his mask on. In this state only Yoruichi could beat his speed, but she wasn't here.

Renji stood by for a second and then made a rash decision. He shunpo'ed towards Hisa-sama, sword at the ready. He was immediately blocked by Ichigo and they exchanged a few blows, Renji managing to stab Ichigo through the arm before Ichigo fired Getsuga Tensho at point-blank range, hitting Renji fully. The red-haired shinigami managed partially block the attack and extended his sword towards the hollow look-a-like. The attack was unexpected and managed to hit Ichigo's shoulder slightly before Ichigo jumped back and threw another Getsuga Tensho at him. The wave hit Renji's arm and he dropped his sword. Ichigo decided that the threat was gone and looked of his next opponent.

"Ichigo, please stop this" Renji called but Ichigo ignored him in favour of his next opponent.

Ichigo turned and went to Soifon next, she tried to stab him with her sword but he just ran around her in circles, confusing her. Ichigo looked up and saw that Byakuya had released his Shikai and was currently fighting Ami and Nanami together while Ukitake and Urahara fought with Hisa-sama. Toshiro seemed to have been incapacitated as he was nowhere to be seen.

Ichigo felt a sudden pain in the side of his stomach and looked down, there was an injury. Scanning quickly he saw that Nanami had been attacked by Byakuya's lethal 'sakura blossoms' but had escaped with only a few hitting his stomach and had projected the wound to him.

Ichigo quickly delivered a blow to the back of Soifon's head and moved on to the next person which was Rukia. He felt himself bleeding and thought that Nanami must have projected his wounds to him.

"Ichigo" Rukia pleaded, "Please …we're your friends"

"I must follow orders" Ichigo said to her, bringing up his sword

-

**Nanami's POV**

Nanami tried to concentrate on the fight but he was worried about the 10th captain, he had disappeared just as Ichi put on his hollow mask and he couldn't find him. He thought that the smaller white-haired captain was plotting something but he didn't know what.

"You should be concentrating on this fight rather than looking around" Byakuya said and Nanami turned his attention to him. Nanami brought his sword to his side and uttered the name for his Shikai again "Release…Kasumi" and made the immediate fighting area mist up so only he could see. "Ami don't move" he said to her and hid his reiatsu before shunpo'ing over to Byakuya and diagonally cutting him across the chest. Byakuya started from the invisible attack but used the wound to his advantage and used the size and trajectory of the wound to find out where Nanami was, he swung his sword in an arc and plunged the sword into the boy's chest. Nanami shouted in pain and jumped back before falling to one knee.

_Nanami, give each of Hisa-sama's guards some of the wound so it doesn't kill any of you _whispered his sword and Nanami nodded before giving a bit to Kaori, a bit to Ami and most to Ichi, he seemed to be able to take the most pain.

Nanami stood up again and clutched the wound tightly, he only gave half of the wound to the other three because he, Ami and Ichi were fighting and Kaori was unconscious.

By now the mist had cleared and Ami was fighting Byakuya alone, she was better than Nanami at swordplay but not as good as Byakuya obviously as he had formed a sword from the 'blossoms' and was now attacking mercilessly… Ami had blood running down her arm as she ran forwards for another attack but the 6th captain used a quick shunpo to vanish and attack her from behind.

-

**Ichigo's POV**

"I won't fight you Ichigo" Rukia whispered, and closed her eyes to await the blow. When no pain came she opened her eyes to see Ichigo standing there "Aren't you going to kill me?" Rukia asked

"I deem you no threat if you will not fight me" Ichigo uttered and vanished. She watched him go with a look of sad surprise at his nonchalant attitude to her. They were meant to be friends.

Ichigo was heading towards Byakuya when a blue arrow shot across his path; he turned and saw Ishida and Chad, ready to fight. But Inoue was nowhere to be seen; Ichigo guessed she was healing people.

Ichigo fired another Getsuga Tensho at the two and carried on. He only needed to disable them long enough to get everyone out. Ichigo shunpo'ed passed Byakuya at top speed, and slashed across his back, taking him by surprise.

"That's enough Ichigo" Hisa-sama called and Ichigo went back to her side with Nanami and Ami,

She faced Ukitake and Urahara; Kurotsuchi was in the background with his instruments and had not been injured because Ichigo had deemed him no threat for the moment. Chad and Ishida were perched on rocks a few metres away, both ready to attack and Inoue and Rukia were healing people.

Ichigo looked down and saw that Toshiro was next to Masumoto, obviously checking that she wasn't fatally injured. Out of the corner of his eye Ichigo saw Nanami smirking

"What?" Ichigo asked him quietly,

"I was worried that he was going to attack us, but he was just looking after his girlfriend" Nanami said

"She's his vice" Ichigo muttered and straightened up, casually pulling off his mask and putting a hand to his side where Nanami had transferred a wound to him.

"I would advise against attacking any longer" Hisa-sama said to the people in front of her "You have seen that Ichi is strong, I think that you should stand down for now before I order him to kill you all"

Ishida lowered his bow, he would have thought that Ichigo wouldn't do that…but from what he had seen so far he wasn't sure.

"Ichigo, take Kaori" Hisa-sama said and he complied, lifting the injured girl up gently. "Ami, take us away from here" she said.

Ami nodded and took out her sword, drawing a circle on the ground "Fly, Ayumukagami" she muttered and the circle glowed, she stood her sword in the centre of the circle and it began to glow as well. She placed her hand on top of the sword and Nanami, Ichigo and Hisa-sama placed their hands atop hers.

"Farewell. For now" Hisa-sama said and the five disappeared.

-

**The Forest Clearing**

Ami transported them all back to the base before sitting down and sighing.

"I didn't know they were that good" Ami mumbled as she motioned Nanami to sit beside her and began healing him with a healing kido.

"You all did well" Hisa-sama said softly and everyone except, Kaori who was unconscious, smiled at her gratefully "Ichi, place Kaori here and I will heal her"

Ichigo complied and set the girl down before sitting down himself and watching Hisa-sama heal Kaori.

"Hey Nanami" Ichigo called

"Yeah?"

"You suck at fighting"

"I've only practised against Kaori and Ami" Nanami grumbled

"Want me to give you some lessons?" Ichigo asked

"Sure" Nanami said, grinning widely at Ichigo. "Should I show you how to block your reiatsu? You're like a beacon"

"That is a good plan" Hisa-sama said and the two boys looked abashed at the compliment. "This way you will both improve in area's that are weaknesses for you…Ami, heal Ichi once you're done with Nanami and yourself"

"Yes Hisa-sama"

"Good, well I think that the plan went well, I have an idea who I want to join our ranks next" Hisa-sama said and continued her healing. The others lapsed into silence.

-

**Urahara's Shop**

**Ishida's POV**

Any conscience Shinigami ad humans had been asked to transport any injured up into the shop. All the rooms were now filled with moaning Shinigami while Inoue, Tessai and Rukia went around healing people. Ishida and Chad were in charge of noting down injuries to help the three healers with triage. Hours later Ishida went into the front room were Urahara and Chad were sitting, comparing notes.

"Here" Ishida sighed, handing his to Urahara.

"Hmmm, according to these notes and what Inoue, Rukia and Tessai have told me, none of the injuries that Ichigo inflicted were fatal" Urahara mumbled

"Even Ikkaku? He pierced his thigh!" Ishida said

"He didn't hit any major arteries" Urahara said contemplatively.

"What does none of the injuries being fatal have to do with anything?!" Rukia asked as she stomped into the room.

"It means that either…he still doesn't want to hurt us and can therefore get him back…" Urahara said

"Or what?" Rukia asked, prompting the shopkeeper to continue

"Or he took Hisa's command at face value; remember she said to only disable us long enough for escape" Urahara finished and the four people sat in silence.

"Or he might've taken the command like that so he wouldn't have to kill any of us" Chad said slowly.

"He might have." Urahara said, standing up. "But we don't know what he's thinking anymore… I have to wait by the gate; the 4th division is coming to help with the injured." The shopkeeper disappeared down into the training grounds to await the arrival of the healers.

"I'm going back to keep healing, Inoue's getting tired" Rukia mumbled and she got up, face hidden from view and fled into the back rooms.

"I don't think this will turn out well" Ishida said to Chad, who nodded. "I foresee a huge fight…against Ichigo…I hope it turns out well"

"Ichigo is one of the most powerful of us after all, his power level is above most of the captains" Chad said, his glumness showing through his tone.

"If we are ordered to fight him, I think the only way would be two or maybe three Shinigami against him" Ishida sighed "let's get back to helping the others. I think Ururu and Jinta need help fetching water"

The two stood up and left the quietness of the front room and proceeded to the back rooms to help. Both staying clear of the upset Rukia.

**A/N: Okay, not the most amazing chapter ever, that could have gone so much better and I may re-write this one too. But I want to hear what you thought about it first. Review and give me some criticism. Hope you like the story so far. **


	9. Meetings and Shiro

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Nine: Meetings and Shiro

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

**Ichigo's POV**

"Don't run straight in for an attack, it's too obvious" Ichigo grumbled as he blocked Nanami for the fifth time. "Your attacks are very predictable. Try to be more spontaneous"

"Right" Nanami said. Changing tack and running towards the right, only to feint to the left and bring his sword down for an upward slash. Ichigo blocked him.

"Even the weaker Arrancar could beat you" Ichigo taunted as he sidestepped and pushed Nanami slightly to unbalance him.

"Oh come on, that's not true." Nanami said good naturedly as he did a flip and righted himself.

"You're athletic, I'll give you that, and you should use it to your advantage" Ichigo mentioned. He had led various squads in the Winter War as well as being in the Visored team and knew how to use people's capabilities to their full potential.

"How do I do that?" Nanami questioned as he drew back and tried to knock Ichigo's balance off with low sweep of his sword. Ichigo jumped and landed effortlessly

"Use your abilities to confuse your opponent, you can move quickly and keep your balance using flips and rolls. Use that to get behind the opponent…if you can get behind them you have a chance to catch them off guard…the back is one of the most vulnerable places because it's hard to keep safe."

"Get behind them?" Nanami asked

"Yes, and trying to unbalance them…most of the power of the sword comes from being solidly grounded." Ichigo answered

"How is that?"

"I'll show you. Stand on the tips of your toes and then try to counter my attack" Ichigo instructed and Nanami did so, he brought up his sword for the counter attack but he was knocked over. "See?"

"Yeah…you could use your full force against me because you were solidly on the ground and had less chance of falling or slipping which would leave you unguarded"

"Yes exactly, you're a quick learner" Ichigo said. Nanami smiled

"I try" he said.

"Hey guys" Ami shouted "Hisa-sama wants to talk to us"

The two boys sheathed their weapons and jogged over to the three females. Kaori and Ami were kneeling down in front of the standing Hisa-sama. Nanami and Ichigo quickly slotted themselves either side of the two girls.

"Well now, it seems we shall have to lie low for a few days. Ami I would like you to keep an eye on the Shinigami"

"Yes, Hisa-sama" Ami replied

"Kaori, I would like you to shield the area to make sure no-one finds us until Ichi can control his reiatsu, and then continue your…reconnaissance and scouting mission"

"Yes ma'am" Kaori said bowing her head in acknowledgement

Hisa-sama turned to Ichigo and set her eyes on him, "Ichi, you are ordered to learn how to conceal your reiatsu"

Ichigo's eyes turned silver in answer and the woman nodded her head, knowing her order was set.

"Nanami, I want you to help Ichi to learn and then carry on with your sword training"

"Yes, my Lady" Nanami said with a smile "May I ask as to why you gave Ichi an order?" he continued

"You may" Hisa-sama conceded with a nod. "He will have too much trouble trying to learn on his own and as you know…my orders cannot be disobeyed…"

"So it will help him…force him to learn?" Nanami corrected himself.

"Exactly my dear, now he cannot fail" she said and turned away, her hair swishing as she walked into a small wooden cabin that Ami had been concealing with her Shikai until a few hours ago. "I will be working, try not to disturb me" she said lightly. The four bowed and she shut the door.

Ami left and Kaori settled into place outside the cabin, so she could keep the shield active and closed her eyes to concentrate.

**Nanami's POV**

Turning and standing, Nanami and Ichigo walked a little way away and stood facing each other.

"Okay" Nanami started. "Try and feel your reiatsu, I suggest you start from a little way off your skin as it radiates off you. Once you can feel it, work inwards until you find the centre of where your reiatsu starts…it should be inside your chest" Nanami instructed and Ichigo closed his bright silver eyes obediently trying to accomplish this first step.

Nanami felt sorry for Ichigo in a way, his reiatsu was so immense that it would be hard for him to control, even with Hisa-sama's order.

It took at least tem minutes before Ichigo nodded; opening his eyes "I found it" placing his hand over his chest to shown Nanami he knew.

"Okay, next is the hardest bit. Let's sit down first" Nanami said, and they did. "You can feel the centre, now you have to find the very point it starts. Reiatsu unravels in a spiral from that point and you have to…re-wrap it in a way. You have to coil the reiatsu back into your body. It doesn't have to be tucked back into that point where it starts, but it has to stay inside your body and not get outside. People can only detect the radiating reiatsu so it can be just below the skin." Nanami watched and Ichigo listened and absorbed the information in silence. In this state he was much more receptive to information and opinions that Hisa-sama or any of her followers gave. Like this he wouldn't listen to anyone except his allies.

"I understand" Ichigo said after a moment and closed his eyes again, focusing his mind to drawing in the reiatsu.

Nanami sighed; this was going to take a while.

**Urahara's Shop**

**Rukia's POV**

Rukia slumped down in one of the spare rooms next to a sleeping Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika and Matsumoto; the Captains had called an impromptu meeting to discuss what had happened with Ichigo, after the meeting one of the Captains would go back to Soul Society with the news of Ichigo's defection and their idea of how to combat the problem.

Inoue bustled into the room, she was still healing people, she had only had a two hour break since yesterday and Rukia was worried about her,

"Inoue, you should get some sleep to recover your energy" Rukia suggested but Inoue quickly brushed her off

"its fine, I've nearly done, its only the people in here and the Captains then everyone will be healed...I've worked for much longer before" Inoue said, referring to the Winter War.

Rukia nodded in assent and stood up to help her by using a healing Kido on Matsumoto while Inoue worked on Renji.

"How long will the meeting last?" Inoue asked Rukia softly, without looking at her.

"I don't know it could be minutes…or hours" Rukia said.

The two worked silently for the next ten minutes while Rukia got increasingly alarmed by some of the idea's that were shooting through her head, ideas about what the Captains may choose to do.

After what felt like an eternity, Captain Ukitake appeared at the doorway,

"Rukia, we want you to send a message to Soul Society, will you come in here" he motioned for her to follow and walked into a side room where the captains meeting had been taking place. She knelt on the floor by the door, waiting.

"Rukia, can you report what has happened to the Captain Commander" started Urahara, unfolding his fan in front of his face. "The Captains have decided that backup is needed in case Hisa comes back for another fight…and we also need a communication monitor so we can speak to the Captain Commander personally…as quickly as possible" Rukia nodded, although she had the feeling that there was something that they were not telling her.

"I will be back before nightfall with the backup and monitor" Rukia agreed, stood up, and bowed before exiting the room.

Making her way down to the training room, Rukia noticed that the gate to Soul Society had already been opened by Tessai,

_They must be in a hurry_ she thought and preceded though the gate.

**In the Forest**

**Ichigo's POV**

It was difficult; Ichigo could feel the stress his body was enduring in an attempt to withdraw his reiatsu into himself. But he couldn't stop trying. An order was absolute…it had to be done; he physically and mentally could not fail this task, however much it hurt.

"I just don't think his body can handle this much reiatsu, my Lady" said a distant voice.

_Who is that…? Nanami?_

_**Yeah king, it's that stupid kid**_

_Shiro…what the hell are you doing?_

_**Was bored, thought I'd annoy ya'**_

_Why now? After all this time…you haven't spoken to me since before…_

_**Yeah king, I couldn't. That poison affected me real badly…had no strength at all and – **_

_But you do now?_

_**Yup **_

_Leave me a lone for a bit, I need to do this_

_**You got an order from our Queen?**_

_Queen?... I'm not going to ask actually. Yeah I did_

_**Fine fine**_

Ichigo's hollow lapsed into silence but Ichigo could feel him still wanting to talk…and he had called Hisa-sama 'Queen' did that mean he thought of her at the same level as he though of Ichigo? He and his hollow had been on good terms since the war, they didn't fight over control anymore and because of this Ichigo often let him take control so he could have fun killing hollows…it was a weird relationship they had.

Ichigo shook his head and went back to his task.

**A/N: Finally got Shiro in there, I'm not very good at that though so it may be edited after I've seen how you lot took it. Review and tell me, I need some critics. **


	10. Training and Plans

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Ten: Training and Plans.

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

**The Forest**

**Nanami's POV**

"I just don't think his body can handle this much reiatsu, my Lady" Nanami said to Hisa-sama as she glided over to check Ichi's progress.

"You may be right…but you could also be wrong, if Ichi has this much reiatsu then he must be able to contain it otherwise he would have been overwhelmed by his own power by now" she said, speaking softly so Ichi could keep his concentration.

"Do you think he can do it My Lady?" Nanami asked as he watched the older boy

"If I didn't I would not have chosen him as my right-hand man" was the reply before she left.

Nanami watched her leave before focusing on Ichi again. Even if he managed to pull in all his reiatsu, it would take a while for him to learn to keep it hidden at all times. At the moment Ichi had only managed to pull in 2 percent of his reiatsu.

Nanami jumped up as an idea came to him and ran to the little cabin to ask permission to help.

**Ichigo's POV**

This took much more concentration that Ichigo previously thought. Every time he pulled in some reiatsu he let his control slip slightly when feeling for the next bit and let it go again. It was becoming frustrating; if he could get a feel for it he was sure he could do it better, but he couldn't seem to get the hang of it.

"_Ne Ichi?" _said a very soft voice

"_Nanami?"_

"_Yeah it's me; I thought I'd give you a hand" _Nanami answered and Ichigo felt an arm touch the middle of his chest, over the place where his reiatsu began.

"_You're in my head aren't you" _Ichigo stated and got a mental laugh from Nanami in return

"_Yeah, now listen. I'm sure you can get this faster if I help. If I help you pull in your reiatsu then you can feel what it's like and try to contain it. If you can manage to contain it, it will be easier to pull in. see?" _Nanami explained

"_Yeah I understand." _Ichigo answered

The next few minutes were quiet as Nanami slowly withdrew all of Ichigo's reiatsu for him. It hummed under the surface of his skin and felt like little electrical currents. It made him feel powerful to have all this power at his disposal. It felt amazing.

"_Now try and hold it as long as possible" _Nanami said and Ichigo felt him pull out of his mind. The power immediately began pushing against his insides. Making it feel like he was being pulled apart. He cringed at the sudden pressure inside his body but tried to ignore it and hold his reiatsu back.

It didn't work.

The reiatsu flung itself outwards in a sudden motion and Ichigo only managed to hold in about 5 percent of his reiatsu, although that was a 3 percent increase from before.

Ichigo opened his silver eyes and looked at Nanami who lay sprawled on the floor in front of him. Apparently the force of Ichigo's power had knocked him backwards.

"Okay that was good Ichi; you held it for about 20 seconds. Now let's keep trying again until you get a good feel of it, and then we can try you pulling it in alone again" Nanami said and sat up cheerfully and placed a hand on his chest again.

**Kaori's POV**

Many hours later, Ichigo was improving, even if it was a very slow improvement. He could now hold all his power in for nearly 5 minutes, but it was causing a strain on his mind so Nanami had suggested a short break.

"You're getting much better Ichi, most people would take years to control their reiatsu and most people start off with a smaller amount to control that slowly increases throughout their training" Kaori said as she gave him and Nanami their food that she had made.

"Yeah I guess" Ichigo mumbled and Nanami looked at him out of the corner of his eyes while eating his food. Ichigo still had silver eyes that were forcing him to do this training, but he was getting better. Even Kaori could see that the difference was noticeable…although she may only have noticed because she was watching the barrier and changing it to keep Ichigo's reiatsu hidden.

Ichigo was managing to keep in 10 percent of his power at the moment, and was still holding it now with little concentration. This meant he was improving and if he could keep it inside his body then he would hopefully be able to do it while sleeping as well so the barrier could be taken down.

Kaori would keep the barrier up as long as needed but even she had her limits.

"Okay Ichi, back to work" Nanami said a while later, "Lets have you at 25 percent before nightfall"

"Yeah okay" Ichigo said, his eyes flashing brighter for a brief second.

**Urahara's Shop**

**Outside POV**

As promised Rukia returned but much sooner than expected, she was only gone for a total of two hours and managed to bring back the communication mirror as well as the entire 10th and 11th division and the first 7 seats of the 6th division, the other divisions had to stay to protect Soul Society in case of attack by Hisa, her three minions and her newly acquired "right-hand man."

Kenpachi was in the real world now with his division but was pulled straight into the side room for a captains meeting.

The communication mirror was against the wall with the Captains and Urahara sitting around a small table with cups of tea and bandages strewn across it.

"So how are we gonna do this?" Kenpachi asked eagerly, hoping that he could fight Ichigo again.

"I believe that none of us could be able to fight Ichigo in a fair one-on-one fight" Urahara chipped in.

"I agree, it would be difficult to beat the young lad, he is very powerful which is why this situation is so serious" the Captain Commander said slowly "Urahara…Kurotsuchi, do you have anything with the research?"

"Of course" Kurotsuchi crooned. "We found that Kurosaki has had Hisa's reiatsu injected into him and it is this that's controlling him. If we could get rid of Hisa's reiatsu then we could break the hold she has over him and those other three minions of hers"

"And how could we get rid of Hisa's reiatsu?" Kenpachi asked impatiently

"To kill her" Kurotsuchi replied gleefully. "Although it's a pity I would love to see her notes on this..-"

"There is a reason that Mind Control is forbidden in Soul Society Captain" said the Captain Commander gravely and the 12th captain nodded meekly,

"So do you all agree that Hisa should be killed to break her control on Kurosaki and those other three?" the Captain Commander continued and the others nodded in agreement. They couldn't kill Ichigo…one of their greatest assets; it would be very unwise in case another powerful opponent turned up in the future.

"So we need a plan?" Kenpachi asked

"If you may, Captain Hitsugaya and I have thought of an adequate plan that has a high chance of working." Byakuya said with a nod from said small Captain. The two of them had become quite close during and after the Winter War because they often got put together to help with strategy plans and worked well together because of their similar personalities.

"Let's hear it then Captains" the Captain Commander said.

Byakuya and Hitsugaya proceeded to lay out their plan and the other Captains had little to add or change, Ukitake had also thought of an extra ploy that worked well with the original plan and the plan was adapted to fit the extra idea.

It was nightfall by the time the Captains meeting was finished and the people all left the room except a few injured ones who were going to get treated by Inoue. The other Captains went to their respective division members to explain their parts in the plan but didn't tell them the whole plan in case any of them were taken by the enemy.

**The Forest Clearing**

**Outside POV**

The sky was long darkened by the time Nanami suggested that they rest for the night. Unfortunately Ichigo couldn't hold **all** his power for more than 10 minutes and he could only hold back 20 percent of his power with little concentration which was 5 percent off from what Nanami had said. Ichigo didn't want to stop because Nanami had said 25 percent and he took this literally because of his altered mindset. (ie. Silver eyes, anything Ami, Kaori, Nanami and Hisa say is law)

Ichigo and Nanami were currently arguing about continuing longer. Nanami was adamant that enough was enough but that conflicted with what he had said earlier so Ichigo was following the first order over this second one. Kaori was getting tired of this and was setting up camp with Ami, who had returned with little news, apparently the Captains had started a meeting but she couldn't find a way to eavesdrop.

"Listen Ichi, I'm giving you an order now, get some rest and continue in the morning" Kaori called to him and he stopped his argument immediately, looking up at her.

"I second that, you're both annoying the heck outta me" Ami growled.

"Three against one Ichi" Nanami said and Ichigo fell silent.

The two boys went over to the makeshift camp and settled down into the little beds. Hisa-sama was still working but when she finished she would sleep in the cabin.

Ichigo wanted to have a quick word with his Hollow but the others had told him to rest so he had to. He had no choice in the matter. He was tired from training all day anyway.

Ichigo went to sleep rather quickly but the other three stayed up discussing other things for a few hours…things that Ichigo wasn't allowed to hear.

**A/N: Hello, sorry for the looooong delay, I'm in my exam period so I can't write much for about 2 weeks. I will try and get another chapter out this week because I have half term then you have to wait two weeks. Gomen. Review. Tell me what you think? Good? Bad?**


	11. The Plan and Information

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Eleven: The Plan and Information

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

**The Next Morning**

**The Forest **

**Ichigo's POV**

Ichigo woke up when Hisa-sama walked out of her cabin, along with Ami, Nanami and Kaori. He stood up quickly and bowed to them. He was pleased to find that he had managed to hold in 20 percent of his reiatsu while sleeping, although his orders may have contributed to it.

"Morning Ichi, sweetheart" Hisa-sama purred as she walked towards him with her blonde hair trailing in the wind. Ichigo smiled in response and said Good morning in reply. "Your training with Nanami is going well I presume?"

"Yes, Hisa-sama" Ichigo answered quickly while Nanami nodded enthusiastically at her.

"Good, I want you to be able to withdraw and hold in all of your reiatsu by tonight" Hisa-sama continued. She paused for a minute before adding "that is an order." Ichigo felt the order wash over him and he felt the need to comply immediately. Hisa-sama smiled and nodded in approval which meant that his eyes were glowing silver in response to the order.

"May I ask why tonight?" Ichigo questioned, looking apprehensive at asking

"Of course you may Ichi. Tonight we are launching a sneak attack on the Shinigami. We need to be like shadows so you must be able to hide your power for the attack to be effective" Hisa-sama answered, smoothing down the front of her golden coloured kimono as she spoke. "We want to add a friend of yours to our ranks, you would like one of your friends to join us wouldn't you Ichi?" she asked with a small smile gracing her face.

"Of course I would, Hisa-sama. I want them to be with us, not against us" Ichigo answered truthfully.

Hisa-sama smiled and nodded to Nanami who went over to Ichigo and sat him down where they had sat the previous night. "Lets get started then Ichi" Nanami grinned.

**Urahara's shop**

**Captain Hitsugaya's POV**

The plan was perfect, only the Captains knew the full plan and their subordinates only knew the parts that concerned them. Both Rukia and Vice Captain Abarai along with the humans had made it clear that they wanted to know the whole plan but Kuchiki-taicho had refused them because of safety reasons.

Hitsugaya walked into the room where the Matsumoto and Ikkaku were resting, they had been healed completely by Orihime and were ready to get back into battle. The plan rested on every single Shinigami as well as the humans.

The plan was very simple in theory but the sheer number of people participating made it very difficult to plan to make sure that everyone was in the right places and did the right things. This unfortunately meant that most of the Shinigami were confused because they only knew their specific parts of the plan and they weren't allowed to know anyone else's plan because it could compromise the plan.

Hitsugaya woke his vice before dragging her to the rest of his division down in the basement. He hadn't informed his people of the plan yet.

"Right everyone, the Captains have decided on a plan of action and each group has a different part to play. I stress now that you are not allowed to talk about your part of the plan or ask others about theirs. Is that clear?" Hitsugaya said and received a verbal agreement from his division. "Okay I want you to divide into 20 groups of 10. Make sure that each group has a seated officer in who will also act as the leader of that group."

Hitsugaya waited for his subordinates to arrange themselves.

"Okay, I will give each group a number and your part in the plan will be started when I call your number." The white haired captains pointed to the nearest group "you are group 1, can the seated officer come and receive the instructions for your group." Hitsugaya waited for the officer to come to him and then he waved Matsumoto away while he gave instructions. "Okay, you and your group will be positioned on the North side of this room, as high up as you can get to the ceiling. When I call your group forward you are to head towards the enemies and form a quarter of a circle along the Northern side, the first groups from the 11 th, 6 th and 12 th divisions will cover the East, West and Southern sides of the circle respectively. You are the first line of defence but you will have backup. Okay relay those orders to your group only and tell no-one else of your orders. Clear?" Hitsugaya got confirmation and the officer returned to his group and led them away to their positions. The Captain sighed at the complexity of their plan and called forth the second group. He felt confident that the plan would work, but he was hoping that Ichigo would do as he normally would.

After all, the unseated officers would be too low level for Ichigo to take notice of. And that would be Ichigo's downfall.

**Ami's POV**

Ami was infuriated; she hadn't been able to eavesdrop on the Captains meeting and now she couldn't figure out their plan because they were only telling pieces to the relevant people. All Ami could figure out was that they were going to surround their group with hundreds of Shinigami, most of who were very weak. It seemed that their scheme was to scare them through sheer numbers. She didn't know what the Captains would be doing while they were surrounded by weak kittens and she didn't like it.

"_Ami?" _A voice filtered through her musing

"_Kaori? What's up" _Ami replied.

"_Hisa-sama asked if there is anything to report."_

"_Can't I tell her directly?" _Ami asked, confused

"_Hisa-sama is working on something delicate and doesn't want to be distracted with an internal dialogue" _Kaori answered serenely

"_Okay, seems like that the Captains have made a plan, I only know a little bit and that is they are gonna get the weak Shinigami to surround us in layers. I'm not sure what the Captains, Vice Captains or those Humans are doing." _Ami reported, trying to keep the disgust in her voice to a minimum.

"_Is that all?" _Kaori said, surprised. Ami could normally get more information and she knew that her lack of it was disconcerting. _"Perhaps we should stay the attack until you can get more information" _

"_I doubt I'll get much more but ask Hisa-sama anyway" _Ami said, banging her hand against a rock in anger. A nearby group of Shinigami looked in her direction but saw nothing because of her swords power.

"_I'll tell her what you said" _Kaori said and Ami felt her presence fade back through the link to the forest clearing.

Ami wandered up to the shop and saw two captains talking. The 13 th and 6 th according to their jackets. Ami moved closer to listen but stayed out of reach.

"Abarai told me that's what he said during their fight" the 6 th Captain calmly

"So when Renji-kun asked him why he couldn't fight her he replied _'can you attack yourself?'_ ?" the 13 th Captain asked and the other nodded, "does that mean that they are somehow a part of her… then what Kurotsuchi and Urahara said at the meeting makes sense, especially because of the connection that Ichigo seems to share with the other three."

"Yes, I believe that their findings were correct, as well as their idea of how to break that connection" the 6 th Captain replied. "That is why we believe the plan will work perfectly"

Ami gaped at the pair. They had figured out a plan to break their connection…but how? Ami quickly opened said connection to the others, including Hisa-sama even though she didn't want to be bothered and relayed the information quickly.

"_Interesting" _Hisa-sama said once Ami was finished _"But I do not believe that they have found a way to break the connection, apart from killing me of course, but my faithful guards would never let that happen" _following this statement the others sent mental nods of agreement. _"Then we will continue as planned. I am confident that OUR plan will be superior to theirs even if we do not know what it fully entails. _

Ami had to agree, it was true that Hisa-sama was much smarter than the other Shinigami. After all, she was the only Shinigami to fully master mind control.

**The Forest **

**Nanami POV**

Ichi was doing great; he had managed to suppress 75 percent of his reiatsu on his own without Nanami's help. The younger boy was watching as Ichi worked on pulling in the rest of his reiatsu. Normally Shinigami took years to control their power but then again… Ichi was a prodigy, he had taken three days to achieve Bankai, been in a war and lead teams of Shinigami on missions in said war, as well as controlling his own Inner Hollow. Suppressing his reiatsu must be much easier than those other things especially with Hisa-sama's orders pushing him as well.

Nanami smiled as Ichi pulled in another 5 percent and put a hand over his heart

"_Okay Ichi, we know you can do it now so you don't need to struggle with the last 20 percent" _Nanami said, _"I still need to learn how to fight better before the attack so I'll help you withdraw the last bits of your reiatsu…you can hold it right?" _

"_Of course!" _came the affronted reply. Nanami grinned like a mad man before closing his eyes and working in tandem with Ichi. After a few minutes they both opened their eyes and smiled

"Let's get to work" Ichi said, jumping up and nearly vibrating with energy as he and Nanami began to spar. Nanami marvelled at how energetic and happy he was now. That could be that he was reacting positively to having so much power they he never realised he had…or that Ichi was pleased he had managed to follow Hisa-sama's orders quickly. Either way Nanami was happy because Ichi was projecting absolute pleasure and happiness down the link. He didn't even seem worried about the attack later tonight even though the Shinigami may have worked out a way to break their link. "Nanami you have to concentrate" Ichi berated him and he shook his head to clear it.

"I would be if you weren't distracting me with your childish happiness" Nanami chided, although the effect was ruined because of the huge grin plastered across his face. Ichi just smiled a little more before letting the smile drop and start trying to teach him properly.

"I still think you need to use your agility more" Ichi said and Nanami proceeded to try and get behind Ichi with the classic side roll. Ichi turned and blocked him.

"Nice…where's Kaori?" Ichi asked, looking over Nanami's shoulder

"Now you've managed to get your power under wraps she's gone to do some recon with Ami" Nanami said and pushed against Ichi's sword with his own before jumping backwards and using Shunpo to appear behind him. The spar continued with Nanami trying to catch the older boy off guard while he gave Nanami tips and pointers on his weaknesses.

Nanami noticed that Hisa-sama had come out of her cabin and were watching them with a smile, he nudged Ichi and they shared a mental communication before shunpo'ing to their boss and doing a low flourishing bow before running back and doing little flips and jumps until they reached their previous location and carrying on. Hisa-sama laughed at their antics before disappearing back into her cabin.

"Nanami your off balance" Ichi pointed out and Nanami looked down at his feet to check

"No I'm not"

THUMP

"Not funny Ichi" Nanami said as he got up from where Ichi had pushed him.

Ichi grinned in response before jumping forward for another attack.

**A/N: Sorry for the stupidly long hiatus. I got writers block so I started writing something else to get my out of it…then I got into the other thing and yeah. But I'm back and I'm going to definitely update more on this one. I promise I will finish this. Review and tell me what you think**


	12. Sneak Attack

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Twelve: Sneak Attack

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

**11 pm Outside Urahara's Shop**

**Nanami's POV**

The five stood outside the entrance to the Shinigami's shop, hidden by Ami's sword release. There were faint sounds coming from inside.

"My Lady, do you think they are all in the basement readying their plan?" Nanami asked seriously.

"Perhaps, but I do not believe that they will be expecting an attack so soon after Ichi's defection" Hisa-sama said lightly and opened the door slightly to peer in. "the coast is clear, Ichi dear you can lead. Ami remember to keep us hidden until my mark"

Ichi nodded and slipped inside silently, Kaori went after him and Hisa-sama was next followed by Ami and Nanami bringing up the rear. The five snuck through the shop stood around the open trap door. Hisa-sama made a thumbs up sign and Ichi jumped down into the basement.

They all landed silently walked swiftly through the throng of Shinigami, unseen. Eventually they found all the Captains and Vice Captains in a circle near the 12th Divisions equipment. Hisa-sama looked around until her eyes alighted the new member-to-be she gave the others a pointed look and they moved in close to their target.

Hisa-sama nodded to Ami and she made them visible. Nanami lunged forwards and grabbed their target, pulling him against him and pinning his arms. Ichi stood in front of them, facing the Captains and Vice-captains.

"Ichigo?" said one of the Captains disbelievingly.

"Let's remain calm, no sudden moves please" Hisa-sama sang, motioning to the hostage that Nanami was holding. "We wouldn't want anyone to get…injured" she smiled. The Captains and Vice's stood still, many of them thinking how to get out of the situation.

"Ichigo what the hell are ya doing?" Ichi ignored the person behind him. "Ichigo" he growled. Ichi turned to the captured man.

"Following orders" Ichi said monotonously

"Che this isn't you Ichigo, don't kid yourself"

"Renji" Ichi said warningly

"You're jus' running away from ya responsibilities" Renji cajoled with a manic grin. Ichi swung around and held his blade to Renji's neck. "Ya gonna kill me Ichigo?" Renji asked. Ichi looked at him with anger but didn't move. "Che, ya know what ya are Ichigo, s'why ya didn't kill any of us before"

Hisa-sama looked at the pair like one would look at arguing children "I didn't tell Ichi to kill any of you, if I did you would have been dead…I did it to make a point, Ichi is entirely under my control" she said conversationally.

"Ichigo wouldn't let anyone control him…ever" a short black-haired girl said.

"Then I shall give you a demonstration" Hisa-sama said and without missing a beat she looked at Ichi. "Ichi sweetie, you know where the Brachial artery is don't you?" Ichi looked at her questioningly and nodded

"In the arm, it's a major artery" he answered quizzically.

"How long could you survive if it was cut?" she asked sweetly.

"urm…about three minutes, maybe four if you're lucky" Ichi replied, looking slightly more confused. Everyone in the vicinity knew what she was about to ask, most of the Captains looked terrified for Ichi.

"Well, then I have an order for you…severe your Brachial artery…but don't make a sound" she said, Ichi's eyes flashed silver and he lifted the sword to his left arm and slashed harshly across his upper arm. The effect was instantaneous; blood spurted horrifically from the cut before slowing and starting to run down his arm.

"ICHIGO!" the short black haired girl yelled, looking terrified.

"Don't move Ichi dear" Hisa-sama said and he nodded dully, lowering his sword and letting the blood pool beneath him. Renji was struggling against Nanami and shouting at Ichi to do something, stop the bleeding…anything. Nanami felt bad for Ichi's former friends to see him like this, but Hisa-sama had to make a point.

**Outside POV**

Everyone fell into silence as they watched Ichigo bleed to death; everyone had a horror struck look on their faces. Orihime ran forwards to the front of the collective Shinigami and Humans.

"Please, Please let me save him" Orihime pleaded Hisa as she watched Ichigo dying with an impassive look. She turned to the orange-headed girl and gave her a long look before turning to the Shinigami at large.

"Do you all understand now, I have complete control over him, if I asked him to kill you he would…without hesitating" Hisa looked at Ichigo and saw he was close to death; she could feel it, as could the other three of her servants. They all looked in pain but didn't speak. "Do you understand?" she asked them. The Shinigami nodded and voiced their understanding. Hisa turned back to the girl and nodded to her "save him" she said simply.

The girl rushed forward

"Ayame, Shuno…I reject" she called. Two little lights came from her hair clips and settled over Ichigo's arm. Everyone watched as the skin repaired itself and the blood disappeared back into Ichigo's body. Ichigo just stood still, a statue…a shadow of who he used to be. Orihime finished her work and backed away, standing with the Shinigami again.

"Well, I think we shall take our leave" Hisa said silkily before any of the Captains could start the plan they had been working on. "Ichi, Nanami. Hold Renji will you? Ami get ready for the transport." Ami nodded and drew a circle in the dusty floor before placing her sword in the centre; once it was ready she nodded to Nanami and Ichigo. The two boys hauled Renji over to the sword and made him hold the handle by placing their hands over his. Renji was shouting and swearing the whole way.

"Wait." Hisa turned and saw one of the Captains had stepped forward; he had black hair and a noble air about him. "Why are you taking my Vice-Captain?"

Hisa laughed softly before answering him. "Because he and Ichi are the perfect team" she said gently and walked to the others.

No-one could do anything to stop what happened next. Hisa pulled a hypodermic needle full of silver liquid and plunged it into Renji's neck, injecting the entire contents before pulling it out and grabbing the handle of the sword. She nodded to Ami the young girl placed her hand on top of everyone else's. "Fly, Ayumukagami" she said, and they vanished.

The Shinigami looked at each other. Until someone spoke up. It was Kurotsuchi

"What did she mean? When she said that they are a perfect team?" he asked.

"They are close friends and can work in perfect tandem, in the war they often worked together. Renji's huge Bankai and Ichigo's small one could work together easily and compliment each other well" Rukia said, looking at the spot where two of her dearest friends had vanished.

**The Forest Clearing**

**Outside POV**

Everyone arrived in the clearing and Hisa quickly released Ichigo from the control so he could help and then turned to everyone.

"Kaori, please make a barrier a mile wide so our newest member can't escape while my Reiatsu is working through his system. Ami and Nanami go get some wood for the fire and Ichi go catch some fish or deer" Hisa ordered. Everyone nodded and she turned, heading for her cabin.

"Wait" Renji said, "I wanna go with Ichigo." Hisa smiled at him charmingly and nodded

"If you wish to, but remember that you will not be able to stop my control over him, or any of them in fact." Renji nodded, glaring at her before following Ichigo.

"Ichigo?" Renji called, jogging to keep up. "Are ya okay?"

"I'm fine" he answered, smiling a little at him.

"Even after nearly dying?"

"Inoue healed me" Ichigo said.

They reached a small lake that had Koi swimming in, Ichigo picked up a branch and fashioned it into a spear using his sword. Renji did the same and they fished in silence for a minute.

"Ichigo wha' about ya Hollow? Is 'e under her control?" Renji asked hopefully,

"Yeah he is" Ichigo answered as he speared a Koi and put it on the bank.

"We are gonna save ya, ya know" Renji muttered to him, "An' the other three…an' I'll have to be saved now I guess"

"How are the Shinigami planning to do that?" Ichigo asked, casting his questioning gaze to Renji. Renji shrugged,

"Only knew a bit o' tha' plan, the bit where I was meant ta fight ya'" Renji said and caught a fish. The two fell into silence again as they caught fish.

"How does it feel ta be controlled by Hisa then" Renji asked eventually.

"It feels good, I don't feel the weight on my shoulders anymore, I feel kind of…free" Ichigo admitted as they walked back to the clearing with their fish.

"Che, I know it ain't ya then Strawberry, ya aint ever minded being a Shinigami" said Renji gruffly "I hope tha' Captains save us." Ichigo regarded him with a mixture of surprise and hurt, he didn't think he needed saving. But he knew that Renji would see the light soon.

Back at the clearing the group made a fire and cooked the fish. Nanami Ami and Kaori were talking about the success of the mission while Ichigo was listening and chipping in occasionally. Renji just observed from beside Ichigo and listened to them. He was surprised about how happy they were, earlier they had looked in pain when Ichigo was dying and now they were acting as if it never happened. They had either known what Hisa was going to do before hand or they trusted her too much to question her. Renji huffed in an annoyed way, he hoped the Captains could give them back their freedom. He couldn't believe that Ichigo had said he felt free under the control of this woman!

Renji was thinking he should sneak up on Hisa in her cabin and kill her to free them when Hisa came out said Cabin and walked over to them. The change in their faces was astounding; they all seemed to glow with joy at her approach. She settled herself between the two girls, Kaori and Ami if Renji remembered right, and took a plate of fish,

"Tomorrow I would like Ichi to teach Nanami some more swordplay" Hisa started and they nodded, giving each other a grin. "Speaking of swords" she continued and grabbed Renji's

"Hey wha' the heck are ya doing?" Renji said, about to stand but Ichigo grabbed his arm to keep him down.

"So you don't get any idea's Renji sweetheart" Hisa said and placed the sword beside her so she could take it into her cabin later. "That reminds me, Kaori I would like a barrier placed around my cabin. Tomorrow you and Ami will do some more reconnaissance in Urahara's shop if you will." They nodded enthusiastically. "Renji you can either help Ichi train Nanami or just watch, I know you are fully….cooperating with us just yet but you can still try to be helpful." Renji glared at her and took a bite of his fish.

Hisa got up and took Renji's sword as she went back into her cabin with her dinner. Renji finished his fish in silence, ignoring the others. He would just fire a Kido at the cabin…he wasn't very good but hopefully he could put enough punch behind it to break the barrier….Renji yawned…he suddenly felt sleepy. He looked over to Ichigo who smiled slightly at him

"Hisa-sama dropped a liquid sedative over your food when she grabbed your sword" Ichigo explained, "Sleep well." And Renji slept.

**A/N: Long delay for this chapter but I didn't know how to do the scene with the Shinigami…it turned out different to how I expected, oh well. Rate and Review, tell me if you think I should change it. **


	13. The Link

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Thirteen: The Link

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

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**The Next Day**

**The Forest Clearing**

**Renji's POV**

Renji woke up to find himself alone in the clearing, he sat up cautiously feeling vulnerable without his sword beside him. He started when he heard laughter coming through the tree's and looked towards the sound, Ichigo and Nanami came out of the forest from the direction of the lake that he and Ichigo fished from yesterday laughing wildly. Renji was surprised by how happy they both looked together.

"Renji! You're awake took you long enough" Ichigo said as he and Nanami dropped a pile of fish on the ground next to the small fire.

"I think we need more wood to cook these" Nanami said motioning to the fish. Ichigo stood up,

"I'll go grab some" he said before getting to his feet and drawing his sword before walking off, leaving Renji with Nanami.

"You look like you have questions" Nanami said to the red-head as he prepared the fish.

"Did ya know?" Renji asked

"What the Lady was going to do with Ichi? We knew it was a possibility if the Shinigami didn't believe that she had total control of him…of us" Nanami said, casting a bright smile to the other. Renji stood up angrily

"YA DON' CARE SHE'S CONTROLLIN' YA?" Renji yelled.

Nanami sighed and patted the ground to get Renji to sit before speaking.

"Do you know who me Ami and Kaori were before Hisa-sama took us in?" he asked and then continued before Renji had a chance to answer "Lost spirits, we wandered the space between this world and Soul Society, like hundreds of others. Do you know what it's like to feel so lost and scared?"

Renji stayed silent, most spirits didn't remember their journey to Soul Society which was often a plus because the spirits that weren't Konso'd made their own way to Soul Society and had a horrific time. But according to Nanami, he and his two friends never got to Soul Society and most likely remember every second of their time.

"I thought so. Hisa-sama gave us hope…a chance to live again, she saved us from the limbo and I for one will always be thankful for that. She is planning to save all the wandering spirits and give them hope too."

Renji looked at the black-haired boy and found that he was telling the truth, but if that was Hisa's plan then…

"Why did she…uh…'save' Ichigo an' me then?" Renji asked as civilly as possible

"The Lady saved Ichi because she wanted protection while implementing her plans. But also because she felt sorry for him" Nanami answered.

"She felt sorry for him?! WHY?" Renji fumed. Standing up and pacing back and forth in front of the small fire.

"Because of what he's been through. Since he became a Shinigami he has been put through challenge after challenge and because of his incredible resilience and maturity to survive and grow many of the Shinigami forget they he is only 18…he never had the chance to be a human because of his heritage and the interruption from a Shinigami very early in his life." Renji stopped pacing, it was true that Ichi had seen things that would make even seasoned Shinigami traumatised and stayed strong throughout it all even though he was so young.

"Ichi has the weight of two worlds on his shoulders, he lives between two worlds, trying to live a normal human life and be a Shinigami. But he is neither fully human nor fully Shinigami…he is like us…a wanderer…and outsider…don't you think?" Nanami said quietly.

Renji turned and looked out towards the tree's "so…she's tryin' to give him a rest? Take the weight off 'is shoulders?"

"Exactly"

"And why did she take me?"

"To help protect her for one, you and Ichi are a very good team. And also because Ichi missed you. He didn't say it but we can tell because of our link, when he fought you he hated it and if he'd had to kill you I believe he would have been consumed by guilt for the rest of his life. So the Lady decided to take you as well to be with Ichi so he wouldn't have to fight against you"

"She's quite honourable in a strange way" Renji muttered and flopped gracelessly on the ground again.

"Yes, now shall we stop talking about this, Ichi's coming back."

Sure enough minutes later Ichigo strolled out from the trees with an armful of wood but someone was with him…someone he hadn't seen since the last days of the war. Renji's mouth dropped open as Ichigo and his inner hollow strolled up and deposited the wood on the floor before sitting down.

"Shiro wanted to work off some energy" Ichigo said by way of explanation as he piled some wood on the fire and stoked it to make it larger. The fish was cooked and eaten in silence, although from the looks Ichigo, Shiro and Nanami were giving each other Renji could tell they were talking through their 'link'

"Okay lets teach you some more sword work Nanami" Ichigo said, standing up and stretching, followed by his inverted mirror twin.

"King, let me warm him up" Shiro said gleefully and Ichigo nodded

"Good luck Nanami" he said and let his twin drag the poor boy away. "Are you gonna help Renji?" Ichigo asked.

"I dunno Ichigo, would be like helpin' tha enemy" Renji said. Ichigo frowned slightly but then his face smoothed out into a relaxed smile.

"It's your choice, but if you see him you might help just because he's so bad. It's kinda funny to watch, I couldn't not help him after his attempt at fighting the Shinigami" Ichigo said and turned to watch Nanami running about wildly, trying to dodge the albino's sword.

Ichigo started to walk over to them and Renji shrugged before following, he had nothing better to do until the Captains found a way to help.

Renji settled himself by a tree to watch the training session and soon found out why Ichigo said that he may help because the boy was so bad…he really was terrible. He was fast and agile but Ichigo constantly had to remind him to use his talents when fighting. Renji could tell that Ichigo was being patient with the boy while trying to teach him because of the expression on his face. Shiro was more vocal, telling Nanami that he wasn't taking any of their advice in.

Strangely enough Renji could see that Nanami was getting really frustrated, he didn't know the boy that well but he could read him like a book, and Ichigo could too because he was trying to calm him as well as teach him.

**Four Hours Later**

Renji was almost feeling sorry for Nanami now. He could understand what Ichigo was telling him, but he wasn't implementing it. Renji had to help.

"Hey Nanami" Renji called as he got up from his spot. The three looked at him surprised before Renji motioned Nanami to come to him.

"Nanami" Renji sighed when the other jogged over to him. "Ya more hopeless than I though. Listen. Ichigo told ya to ground ya self when you attack an' defend an' try to stay moving tha rest of tha time right?" he asked and Nanami nodded breathlessly. "Think of it like this. When ya opponent attacks is like a tug of war, and to win you need to be able to push them down or pull them over, so ya need to be able to stand ya ground. But when he aint attacking he's looking for a way to push ya over…if ya move he won't be able ta find one as easy." Renji said and showed him by pushing against him. "Trust me I used to do tha same thing and ma sensei told me to imagine tha when I fight, it worked for me so it migh' work for ya"

Nanami nodded and jogged back over to Ichigo, followed at a slower pace by Renji.

"Told you that you would end up helping" Ichigo said as Shiro ran forward for an attack and engaged him in a sword clash where they pushed against one another.

"che, he looked pitiful" Renji muttered as they watched the pair fight. Nanami seemed to be concentrating more as he imagined what Renji had told him. But he had improved; he hadn't been knocked over yet. The visual image seemed to have worked.

Renji sat down next to Ichigo on the floor to watch them.

"So, why did ya let ya hollow out?" Renji asked

"He had too much energy and I though that letting him fight Nanami would use some of his energy up so he would shut up about being bored" Ichigo said and grinned.

"Wha' if he kills him?" Renji asked

"He wont, he has more control than that…plus we use the same reiatsu which is surrounded by Hisa-sama's reiatsu and we can't destroy it…Nanami has her reiatsu too so we physically couldn't kill him." Ichigo explained and Renji sighed. He didn't understand how Ichigo could be so subservient to that woman after she nearly killed him. Although, if any reiatsu he uses has to get past Hisa's reiatsu first then she could change it and even stop it. She could make Ichigo powerless.

But why did he think like he did, control over his reiatsu couldn't change his personality that much…

**Three Hours Later**

Nanami was slowly improving but he had been training for hours and they all decided to go wash up in the lake. Nanami looked relived when he sunk into the water even though it was freezing cold and had fish in. He breathed a sigh of relief and Renji noticed the lines around Ichigo's face soften too, even though he hadn't yet got in the water.

Renji remember that the 'followers' were all linked very closely together but Renji hadn't realised how close they link actually was.

"_When all tha Shinigami were fightin' 'em one of 'em get hurt they all shouted in pain…are they that close that they feel each others emotions or was it a coincidence. Maybe I should experiment"_

Renji 'accidently' tripped as he got into the lake and knocked Ichigo into a particularly sharp rock.

"Itai! Renji!" Ichigo growled as he rounded on the red-head while rubbing his knee. Renji apologized while glancing at Nanami. He was rubbing his knee, the same knee Ichigo had hurt.

It hit Renji like a smack in the face. Nanami, Ami and Kaori were happy to serve Hisa and if Ichigo was linked to them he would get that happiness from their link. Renji grinned, happy at his own intelligence to work it out…but how would he tell the Captains. He only had a day left before he became like them…

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**A/N: Long time since I last updated but I'm trying. I have a-level work to do; it's harder than I thought. This chapter was all in Renji's POV and I did try to keep him in character although I have a suspicion that I failed…badly. Rate and Review, tell me if I need anything changed. (I know this Chapter is shorter than the others, I apologize for that)**


	14. The Barrier

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Fourteen: The Barrier

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

* * *

**The Forest Clearing**

**Renji POV**

After a quick soak in the lake the three boys went back to the clearing, Shiro had already retreated back into Ichigo, apparently bored because the fighting had ceased. According to Nanami, Ami and Kaori were coming back for some food which meant that Hisa might come out too giving Renji a chance to attack her again, even without his sword he hoped to get past them all to return back to Urahara's shop.

Renji sat in between Ichigo and Nanami in silence and let their conversation wash over him as he though of ways to break the barrier that Kaori had erected,

"_I could try ta knock the girl out, the barrier would probably break if I did…or maybe blast a hole in it, but I dun't think tha would work" _Renji reflected as he thought about his distinct lack of kido abilities.

A rustling brought him back into the conversation as Nanami raised his voice joyfully, he turned to find Ami coming through the trees looking quite put out. She flopped down onto the grass and sighed

"Stupid Shinigami didn't say anything about their plan" she grumbled and Renji internally smirked.

"Why didn't they?" Nanami asked

"Probably because the planning stage is over, they were getting ready for something…I think it's a direct attack because they were talking about 'moving out'"

"Do they know where we are? The barrier shouldn't give any indication of us being here" Nanami questioned.

Ami motioned behind her "Kaori's checking the barrier now" she told them.

The four sat in silence until Kaori returned with some bags

"Do I even want to know when you had the time to go shopping?" Kaori groaned, Kaori settled herself gracefully between Ami and Nanami and took out 6 bento boxes

"I thought it would be good to eat something other than fish tonight, the barrier's fine by the way. No cracks anywhere" Kaori said happily as she handed out the food. Renji accepted his grudgingly and began to eat, it had nearly been a day since that liquid had been injected into him, which meant that he only had a day left to get away before he fell under the spell. Renji quickly formulated a plan that probably had no chance of working, but it was worth a shot.

"Can I go fer a walk? Or do I nee' a babysitter?" Renji sneered at them, Nanami looked at him

"Feel free, just remember there's a barrier" he said, brushing his black hair out of his eyes as he turned away and started talking to Ami.

Renji walked into the forest and towards the opposite side of the barrier, as far away as possible from the others. If he could lower the barrier fractionally or crack it temporarily the Captains should be able to sense his and Ichigo's reiatsu before the girl got it back up. From what the two girls had said, the Captains plan had changed, originally they were going to draw Ichigo and the others to them an create an ambush, but by the sound of it they were planning to attack which meant they would need to know where it was. Renji reached the barrier and looked at it, he could see his reflection and to his disgust he saw that his hair was turning darker. He would soon be like the other slaves Hisa had managed to acquire.

"Righ' lets do this and hope I don' die in the process" Renji muttered and stepped back a few feet before holding his palm out to the barrier.

"_Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! _**Shakkahō**_"_

A ball of red energy shot out of his hand and hit the barrier, he burnt his hand in the process but he didn't kill himself so he shot another Shakkahō and then a third.

"Okay I think that may have made a crack" Renji grunted as he shot a fourth and fifth at the barrier, it rippled dangerously and seemed to have gone more see-through than the surrounding area. "I hope the Captains can see this" he muttered as he shot another and started increasing his reiatsu in hopes of being sensed through the weak part of the barrier.

**Urahara's shop**

**Outside POV**

Kuchiki Byakuya stood up from the plan he and Hitsugaya Toshiro had been poring over.

"What's the matter?" the Tenth Division Captain asked.

"Abarai's reiatsu, I can sense it. It's coming from the forest outside Karakura" he answered. Hitsugaya closed his eyes briefly

"I can sense it too, its very feint" Hitsugaya agreed. Footsteps could be heard and Rukia bound in after knocking hastily

"Brother, I can sense Renji's reiatsu" she said excitedly, "He's telling us where their base is"

"Yes Rukia he is, but we must stick to the plan" Byakuya told her and she nodded, looking downcast.

Urahara appeared in the room and looked at them

"At least we know where they are now, I wonder if Abarai-kun will get injured by Hisa for doing that"

"Would she do that?" Rukia asked, panicked.

"She will have changed since I last knew her, but I believe that Ichigo will protect him as much as he can from her wrath" Urahara said from behind his ever-present fan.

"Isn't Kurosaki completely under her control?" Byakuya asked.

"He is, but Renji isn't the strongest person here is he? Yet she took him to their side. Why do you think that is?." The room was silent after Urahara asked until Toshiro looked up at him

"So they wouldn't have to fight" he answered,

"Partly" Urahara agreed "But if that was true why would she take Ichigo at all, because he would have to fight all of his friends. I think it is because they make a good team. They make up for each others weakness's, Ichigo's small Bankai and Renji's large one work in harmony together and they cover each others back's in battle… but they do have a weakness…"

"Kido" Rukia said

"Exactly" Urahara said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

**The Forest**

**Ichigo's POV**

Ichigo jumped up when he felt the first blast, he had felt it in his chest as pain filtered through their link.

"That idiot" Nanami wheezed, clutching his chest in a mirror image of Kaori. "He knows it won't break so why is he attacking the barrier?"

"He can weaken it enough to give away our position" Kaori gasped.

"Can you hold on until I stop him?" Ichigo asked, picking up his sword, the other three nodded and he sped off.

Using shunpo Ichigo quickly made it to Renji's side.

"What are you doing?" he demanded

"Wha' it look like?" Renji asked through gritted teeth as he pushed his reiatsu as high as he could while something tried to push it down. He shot another Shakkahō at the barrier and Ichigo swung his sword around and bashed him on the side of the head as hard as he dared. Renji dropped like a stone and his reiatsu dissipated around him in a swirl of red.

Ichigo threw Renji over one shoulder and held his sword in his hand as he used shunpo to get back to the clearing. He place Renji a little away from the fire and went back to the others.

"You guys alright?"

"Yeah fine"

"Been better"

"Once I hit the red-head I will be"

Ichigo sighed.

"He still needs some time" he told Ami as he hunkered down into a crouch next to them. At that moment Hisa appeared from her barrier-covered cabin.

"My my, what on earth happened?" she asked sweetly

"Ren tried to destroy the barrier so the Shinigami could find him" Kaori chirped, quite content now that the pain had gone.

"Ami, I want you to check in with the Shinigami and see if they found out. It would do us no good if they found our base" Hisa said and Ami stood

"On it" she said and vanished into the trees.

"Kaori dear I think we'll need to strengthen the barrier, if you don't have enough reiatsu I'm sure Ichi will let you borrow some of his" she said, looking at Ichigo from confirmation. He nodded and went back to watch Renji.

"Ichi, Nanami. I think you'll need to keep a closer eye on him. If this had been yesterday I would have punished him, but he is so close to joining us that maybe he got scared. I'll let it slide as long as you boys tell him that there's nothing to fear from us" Hisa told them

"Of course my Lady" Nanami said, bowing theatrically. She smiled and petted them both on the head before going back to her cabin.

"Ichi sweetheart, I think Renji will need his new uniform soon" Hisa added.

"Of course Hisa-sama" Ichigo agreed and looked down at his own silver robes, silver contrasted nicely with Hisa-sama's robes and their hair.

Ichigo stared at Renji's unconscious face for a minute, musing internally.

"You're his friend Ichi, why is he trying to get away from you?" Nanami asked.

"He isn't, he wants us to be saved. If he'd had the chance to leave I don't think he would have because he wants me to leave too" Ichigo explained. "Plus I don't think he likes the idea of being controlled, as he puts it"

"I didn't like the idea at first either" Nanami admitted "But I don't mind now. It feels good to help her achieve her goals."

"I agree all those lost souls in the Valley of Screams could be saved so easily. It could have been done years ago." Ichigo said. "And the link is good too; we can share injuries and even reiatsu."

"And ya share a mind" Renji said groggily, sitting up with a struggle "That's why ya aren't yerself Ichigo. 'cos all these guys are changin' how ya think"

"Yeah but in the reverse Ichi's changing how we think too" Nanami countered. "Hang on, I know a minor healing Kido" he said as he held his hand over the bruise on Renji's head. "Did you have to hit him so hard Ichi?" he scolded

"Yeah yeah sorry" Ichigo said, stretching back and watching the healing. "Damn Kaori's using a lot of my reiatsu to strengthen the barrier" he commented.

"Yeah she's using a bit of mine too. But you recover your reiatsu so fast it's the best to use in a situation like this. You should be able to fight at full power in a few hours while the rest of us won't be able to until tomorrow" Nanami said as he finished the healing.

"See Renji, there is something good about being linked together, they others can use my reiatsu if they need to" Ichigo said. "You too when the serum has completely finished its process"

"An' I should be happy about tha' why?" Renji muttered.

"You'll see the light soon Ren" Nanami said as he stood up and stretched his arms. "I'm surprised you haven't at least started seeing our way of thinking"

"I've seen what Ichigo was like!"

"Oh so you're fighting it because you're scared?" Nanami countered "Well Ichigo wasn't, you shouldn't be either"

Renji looked at Ichigo who shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Well we should get some sleep" Nanami said as he settled back down on the grass. "Ami and Kaori are going to keep an eye on the Shinigami until the morning most likely"

"Why aren't you two spying then?" Renji huffed. Nanami grinned at him.

"You need a babysitter"

Renji punched him in the face.

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**A/N: Okay I have no good excuse; I have reasons for taking forever to write, but not really good ones on their own. Altogether they make quite a list though. I won't say them though they don't really matter. Sorry for taking ages to update but I hope to be updating quicker now. :) For those of you that haven't given up I hope you enjoyed it. **


	15. Transformation

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Fifteen: Transformation

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

* * *

**The Forest Clearing**

**Renji POV**

Renji groaned as he sat up, he could hear muted voices in the background as he looked away and found Ami and Kaori sitting nearby with Nanami and Ichigo. But none of them were speaking. He concentrated and heard the voices had become slightly louder. He looked away from them and tried to listen in but they were very quiet. He could hear the gist of the conversation from Ichigo, who seemed clearer than the others. They were talking about an attack.

"Wha's going on?" Renji demanded, springing up. Nanami turned to him

"Wow you took ages to wake up" he turned to Ichigo again "You hit him too hard again, he was out for almost 14 hours" Ichigo shrugged

"It was Ami's fault, she really wanted to hit him" Ichigo said and patted the ground next to him. "Have a seat Renji." Renji glared at him before sitting down

"Ya were talking about an attack" Renji said

"Oh you heard that? You're getting closer to us; I'm going to guess that Ichi's the clearest in your mind?" Kaori said gently "That's probably because you are very good friends with him"

"Stop changin' tha subject" Renji growled. Nanami looked at the all and Renji heard a faint discussion before he turned to him.

"Once the process is complete and you are a fully cooperative part of our team then we will attack the Shinigami again" Nanami explained.

"Wha?" Renji said

"Yes an extra person on our team will benefit our next operation greatly. Especially one who can hit so hard" Nanami said while rubbing the spot where Renji had hit him last night. "I had to call Kaori back to heal the injury, you broke my jaw you know" Nanami said conversationally.

"Wha's our next operation?" Renji asked and Ami smirked at him

"Did I just hear you say 'our' Renji?" she taunted and Renji looked horrified

"No!" Renji denied and Ami only smirked more, looking like the female version of Ichigo's inner Hollow.

"Don't bully him Ami" Kaori said sedately "He is scared enough as it is without you're taunting"

Renji growled at her but she just patted his arm before continuing where Nanami had left off.

"We are going to add another person to our ranks" she told him.

"Who?" Renji asked, finding himself suddenly curious about who would be joining his turmoil next, assuming Hisa-sa…no Hisa…HISA actually managed another attack without being defeated.

"We don't know, but we do know that they should be off guard because they are planning an attack so they won't be expecting one" Nanami answered

"Hisa-sama will be filling us in later today before the attack" Ami said, "Until then we have to train. But you can just sit there if you don't want to cooperate" she sneered and pulled Kaori up and away to the other side of the clearing.

Ichigo remained with Renji and materialised his hollow.

"Nanami, Shiro said he'd teach you" Ichigo said as his counterpart straightened up with a manic grin and pulled Nanami away to the other side of the clearing, opposite to the girls.

Renji watched Nanami for a minute before turned to Ichigo.

"Hey Ichigo, in those last hours 'fore ya turned ya went all quiet and Hat'n'Clogs said ya were thinking a lot, what were ya thinking abou'?" Renji asked

"I could hear Ami, Kaori and Nanami through the link but I wasn't with them so they came to me through the link and projected themselves so I could see them. They kept me company while I was being experimented on by Kurotsuchi and told me stories about Hisa-sama as well as themselves" Ichigo explained.

"Were they there all the time?" Renji asked. Ichigo nodded and looked towards the girls who were practising swordplay. "why didn't ya tell us?!" Renji growled.

Ichigo shrugged, "I felt different about them by then" he said "Don't you feel a little more close to them?"

"Not Really" Renji lied as he turned away from his friend to watch Nanami.

"Do you know why Hisa-sama is doing all this, fighting the Shinigami, making this serum?" Ichigo suddenly asked.

"No, why is she doing it?" Renji asked, suddenly interested.

"At first she experimented in mind control while working in the 12th division as a hobby, she would never have used it. But when she was exiled she took copies of the information with her so she continue, she was in the Valley of Screams, wandering with the spirits when she found Nanami, Ami and Kaori who she tried to lead to Soul Society. Apparently they couldn't get there however hard she tried because they were connected to the Living World because of regrets from when they were alive." Ichigo paused to breath then continued. "Hisa-sama tried everything to get them to Soul Society because she still believed in the Soul Society even if she was exiled. She decided to try out her mind control serum on one of them so see if it would force them to let go of their attachment to the Living World. It worked and she did it to the other two and took them to Soul Society to teach them how to be Shinigami. After they found out she was exiled they refused to go to the Academy and pleaded Hisa-sama to save the other souls"

"So she came up with the idea ta put everyone under this mind control" Renji said. "But she is like the leader so it sounds more like world domination"

"Not really, someone needs to regulate the control influences such as hate and greed so they don't become dominant and start to control everyone" Ichigo explained.

"But tha's wha' the Captains do in Soul Society, regulate hollow's and souls" Renji argued.

"But can they save the souls that are walking between the worlds?" Ichigo asked

"Well no" Renji relented, "I guess in tha respect Hisa-sa…Hisa is better"

"_You'll still be you Ren, the only difference is that you can hear us all mentally, project injuries to one of us and used our Reiatsu"_ Nanami chipped in through the link, although he was still quite faint. Ichigo nodded and Renji felt soft agreement coming from the other girls.

"But ya influence each others thoughts and emotions" Renji disagreed.

"_Not completely, we can feel each others emotions, hear thoughts, and explain our pasts to each other which may change our own way of thinking… but we don't force each other to think certain things. If you see someone really happy then you are more likely to feel happy yourself because they are, its like that with the link but its just you can feel more from them than what you see with body language and facial expression"_ Kaori explained, forcing Renji to concentrate on her in his mind to hear clearly.

"It's weird" Renji said lamely after a minute, Ichigo grinned and punched him the side of the head lightly before standing,

"I'll give your puny mind some time to think then" Ichigo grinned and walked over to Nanami to help his hollow. Renji watched him from the middle of the clearing and let his mind wander over what he had heard.

**Urahara's Shop **

**Outside POV**

The shop was a flurry of activity as the Shinigami hurried round getting ready for the attack, the Captains were holding yet another Captains meeting, finalizing the plans.

"I hope this goes well" Ishida commented as he and Chad sat on a rock in the underground training area.

"Me too" Chad said.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before being called down by the 12 th division Captain, the meeting had apparently ended and the Captains were spreading out all over the room and calling over their respective divisions.

"Ah yes we need some help moving these instruments" Kurotsuchi said, handing a bundle of metal buzzing rods to them. "Give these to each of the groups; there should be 20 groups per division except for the 6 th division which only has a single group" he said before hurrying off to shout at one of the groups that had tipped over a tray of glowing objects.

"Okay I'll take the 10 th division groups and the 12 th division groups, you can take the 11 th and 6 th" Ishida said and counted out 40 rods before moving away around the huge area. Chad took the remaining 21 rods and walked the opposite direction.

"What're these metal rods supposed to do?!" Ikkaku asked Chas as he handed out the rods to the group leaders, of which Ikkaku was not as he and Yumichika had a special assignment.

"I don't know" Chad told them before walking to the only 6 th division group and handing them their rod. Just as he was walking away he heard Captain Kuchiki talking to the group.

"That rod will be needed for the first part of our plan, when I give the signal you have to place the rod in the ground and-" Chad couldn't hear anymore as the Captain began talking quieter. All around the room the group leaders were being given instructions by their respective Captains, most likely about the rods like Captain Kuchiki had been doing.

Chad met up with Ishida again and they sat down only to find Captain Hitsugaya standing in front of them,

"The Captains have given you a part of the plan, you cannot tell any other Human or Shinigami this plan in case it gets heard by the enemy. The other groups have their own agenda's for the attack and you have to protect them all. From anything that may come near them" the 10 th Captain explained.

"There are over 60 groups, how can we protect them all?" Ishida asked disbelievingly.

"You are to take a spot on the North side Ishida and protect the North and West sides using your Quincy bow to destroy any Kido or attacks sent their way, while Chad will do the same for the South and East sides using his powers"

"Do you expect many attacks to the groups?" Chad asked

"Not really at first, there may be more later. But in the beginning most of the attacks will likely be misfire from the other groups. Please ready yourselves" Captain Hitsugaya said and promptly left.

"We'd better get into position then; we don't know when this is going to happen" Ishida said and Chad nodded as the separated yet again.

**The Forest **

**Ichigo POV**

Hours had passed since Ichigo had spoken to Renji; he'd been sitting in the centre of the clearing thinking ever since. Ichigo could hear him through the link quite clearly now and he was having a conversation with Zabimaru. Ichigo, Nanami, Ami and Kaori had decided to keep quite and let him have some space. It was dark out now and there wasn't much time left until the serum completely finished its job.

Kaori went to the middle of the circle and relit the fire; everyone could see that Renji now had pure black hair and silver eyes. Ichigo turned to Nanami leaned towards him

"How much time is there left?" he asked him quietly.

"About 20 minutes I think, we've been practising for over 10 hours now, I hope we're read for this" Nanami said, looking a little worried.

"Its okay, me and Renji have got your back" Ichigo said

"Thanks Ichi!" Nanami grinned.

Ichigo went to Hisa-sama's cabin and knocked politely on the door, when she opened it she smiled at him, looking as radiant as ever.

"Hisa-sama do you have some robes for Renji?" he asked after giving a short bow. She pulled a set off the shelf beside the door and gave them to him

"Is the transformation nearly complete?" she asked gently

"Nearly Hisa-sama" he said and she smiled brightly.

"Brilliant, we shall be leaving shortly then. Get ready to fight Ichi dear" she said excitedly and shut the door, leaving him to give the robes to Renji.

Ichigo turned and went to Renji's side, sitting down before placing the robes on his lap.

"Here" Ichigo said. Renji blinked at him and looked at the robes. "They're easier to fight in" Ichigo offered when Renji looked doubtful.

"Fine" he grumbled and moved outside the clearing to change.

Ichigo sat talking to Ami about her information while Renji was changing.

"So they are going to attack us? Are you sure?" he asked

"Yeah I'm sure, they were talking about 'moving out' and finding 'weak points' so I assume that meant they were going to attack us here and they did find out our general location because of Ren" she stopped to glare at him as he walked back into the clearing. "I'm glad that we're attacking first, they won't expect us to attack again so soon after the first one two days ago"

"Exactly" Hisa-sama said as she strode into the light of the fire. Ichigo saw Renji turn to her and smile; he had obviously been as surprised as Ichigo when he'd first seen her. Although he had seen her a lot before his transformation so it didn't have quite the same effect. "Right now we are all ready I'm sure you want to know our target" Hisa-sama continued.

Renji came and sat beside Ichigo and Hisa-sama brought his sword out from inside her robe and handed it to him.

"Thanks Hisa-sama" Renji murmured quickly as he took his sword back.

"Now you look like a member of our family Ren" she smiled "Okay now, our target may be quite difficult to get, we know the Shinigami have a plan that we don't know but by this attack we hope to prevent their plan from coming to fruition" Hisa-sama explained.

"So who are we adding to our ranks?" Ami asked.

"Urahara Kisuke"

-----------------

**A/N: Okay because I took so long to update this is a bit longer, a page longer to be precise. It's starting to get interesting now, lots of plans and fighting coming up. Bare with me, this will be finished. I won't leave it. :) **


	16. Phase One

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Sixteen: Phase One

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

* * *

**Outside Urahara's Shop**

**Ichigo POV**

Hisa-sama stood outside the shop, her back to the door as she faced her assembled followers.

"We need to work fast" she told them "we don't want a big confrontation this time as it could compromise the plan" Hisa-sama glanced at Ami "Could you shield us from view the whole time we are in there?" she asked

"I should be able to as long as we don't use too much reiatsu" Ami answered, glaring at Renji and Ichigo. They grinned to each other and nodded while Nanami sighed theatrically.

"Right then shall we proceed our attack?...You first Ichi dear" she said and gracefully stepped out of the way of the door. Ichigo waited for Ami to make them invisible with her sword before sliding the door and stepped inside, closely followed by Nanami, Ami, Hisa-sama, Kaori and Renji bringing up the rear. The shop was eerily silent as they crept further inside.

"**Maybe they know yer plan" **sounded his Hollow from inside his head.

"_They are probably getting ready for their attack, During the War it was nearly always our side that attacked first so as to gain the upper hand" _Ichigo explained

"**They migh' have changed their plan" **Shiro huffed

"_We won the war using such strategies, why would they change it now?" _Ichigo asked him,

"**Well if yer wrong can I come out and play?" **He asked hopefully

"_Only as long as you don't overdo it" _Ichigo conceded, he felt a fluttered of excitement from his Hollow but didn't comment as Shiro said nothing back. The group came to a stop around the closed trap door and looked at Hisa for instructions.

"You and Ren first would be best" Hisa-sama told Ichigo. They both opened the door and jumped simultaneously.

**Urahara POV**

The second the trap door opened a silent alarm had activated on Captain Kurotsuchi's computer, he caught the Captains eyes and nodded with a gleeful smile. Captain Kuchiki leapt up the highest rock in the underground basement and made sure everyone had seen him.

"Activate Phase One" he called into the silence. In the same instant all 61 of the groups around the furthest walls of the basement stuck their buzzing rods into the ground or wall behind them and five of the ten people in each group held a different part of the rod and started feeding small amounts of reiatsu into it.

The buzzing rods let out a stream of light, connecting it to the rods on the right, left, above and below, creating a sphere of light connected by the rods.

"This is one of the strongest barriers in existence" Urahara said to the room at large from next to Captain Kuchiki, "That is because it takes hundreds of people and a large amount of reiatsu to maintain. The barrier is so strong that you will not be able to teleport beyond it now it has been completely erected. Now Hisa…shall we stop the hiding?" Urahara asked, hiding his face behind his ever-present fan.

There was complete silence for a few moments before Renji and Ichigo jumped up to the rock where Urahara and the 6 th squad Captain waited.

"My my, did you boys come alone?" Urahara asked the silver-eyed duo.

"No" they answered in synchronicity.

"Then where is my old squad member?" Urahara asked in mock hurt, "She isn't hiding is she?"

"No" Renji answered "its safer fer Hisa-sama hide until we know wha' ya plannin' "

"I thought it was obvious, we are planning an attack" Captain Kuchiki said, watching his Vice-captain closely for any hint of their plan. Renji remained expressionless but his eyes slid downwards for a moment, a glace at Ichigo showed the same reaction, they seemed to be listening to something.

"We thought your attack would be on our camp" Ichigo said finally.

"Then you thought wrong, and you have effectively been trapped by us because of your blunder" Captain Hitsugaya said as he appeared next to Urahara, both Renji and Ichigo had pulled out their swords at the 10 th Captains appearance and didn't seem pleased by his materialization.

"Such glares boys, what do you have against young Hitsugaya?" Urahara questioned. They both looked at each other briefly before lowering their swords fractionally.

"It's nothing against him, but we don't like being outnumbered" Ichigo said eventually.

"I didn't think you would admit to being scared Ichigo" Hitsugaya said coldly, he obviously wasn't pleased with how Ichigo had attacked Matsumoto a few days before.

"I normally wouldn't have" Ichigo said.

"Hisa-sama told him ta" Renji told them

"Now why would she do a thing like that?" Urahara asked,

"Because she doesn't want ya to think we 'ave any ulterior motives fer Captain Hitsugaya" Renji answered.

"And-" Ichigo broke off speaking as he and Renji focused on something else, the Captains and Urahara waited in anticipation, they finally nodded to the silent speaker and pulled up their swords before vanishing. A split second later Ichigo appeared, running towards the 10 th Captain with his sword held high while Renji mirrored him but targeted at the 6 th Captain instead. The Captains pulled out their swords to block and dived after the two boys as they raced off to opposite sides of the barrier, leaving Urahara alone.

"Well Urahara" said a voice and he turned his attention back to Hisa, who was slowly solidifying in front of him.

"I am assuming that I am your next target?" Urahara said genially as he closed his fan and stowed it in his sleeve.

"You assume correctly, you always were very smart" Hisa said silkily, as her other three followers became visible. The two females were standing either side of her, and the male was standing beside her, watching the surrounding Captains and Shinigami.

"I'm afraid that I will have to decline" Urahara said, Hisa laughed softly.

"You don't have a choice"

"Well, how I see it. You and your followers are outnumbered" Urahara told her.

"Yes but you are outmatched" Hisa retaliated

"Can Renji and Ichigo fight everyone at once?" Urahara asked as he turned to watch Captain Kuchiki block a particularly forceful attack from Ichigo.

"I chose them for a reason" Hisa said as an answer.

The next second Ichigo and Renji were standing either side of Urahara, swords pointing at his neck. Both the 6 th and 10 th Captain seemed surprised at the loss of their opponents but remained out of the way in expectation of the next few moments.

Urahara watched as Hisa came close to him and took out a needle filled with silvery liquid. Urahara lifted his arm up a little and put up three fingers then put down one, then the second, and finally the last.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south...Shakkaho" voices came from the all sides of the room, aiming at the tall rock on which they were standing.

Ichigo and Renji moved away from Urahara, grabbed each of Hisa's arms and shunpo-ed away, followed quickly by the others moments before red lights streaked towards Urahara, he jumped down to the bottom of the rock just as they impacted with each other in a fiery red explosion, any off target Kido were quickly dealt with by Chad and Ishida, just as planned.

"Can you still deal with our sheer numbers? we have 610 Shinigami, excluding the Captains and Vice Captains, can you really incapacitate over 600 Shinigami without one of them managing to disable your people?" Urahara called to Hisa who was near the edge of the room, surrounded by her followers in a protective circle.

"Well because of this barrier half of those Shinigami cannot move unless they want the barrier to be maintained. These Shinigami are very low level so I believe that we will be able to fight them and win, don't you agree?" she said, turning to her followers. They nodded and turned back to watch Urahara.

Renji and Ichigo shunpo-ed back to the now burned high rock and waited for Urahara to return, he jumped back up, followed by Captain Ukitake, Captain Hitsugaya and Captain Kuchiki.

"Bringing backup?" one of the girls taunted as Ukitake set down just behind Urahara,

"No, just evening the playing field, I would rather not a repeat of that incident, would you?" Urahara asked, she sneered but fell silent.

"This has been rather well planned out I see, Am I predictable, or were you just lucky and guessed our plans?" Hisa asked eventually

"You are predictable my dear" Urahara said and was treated to hisses from the followers.

"At first I assumed you would have changed since you were exiled, but when I heard Ichigo call you 'Hisa-sama' I realised that you have not changed at all, you never did like being called by your last name. Because you have not changed in that respect I thought that you would not have changed much at all, and as my former third seat I knew you very well…how you thought, your behaviour, your personality, all of it. I am glad that I was right so I would have a chance to stop you before things got out of hand" Urahara explained.

"To stop me?" Hisa asked "if you know me so well you should know that I am doing this for pure reasons, not to take over Soul Society" she said with ire.

"I know exactly why you are doing it, but I do not agree with how you are doing it" Urahara clarified. The same girl that sneered at Ukitake before piped up

"Why, because it's forbidden in Soul Society?" she mocked "It may be mind control in basis but it gets results, Kaori, Nanami and I were all able to escape the Valley of the Screams because of it and we never fight each other either, this method only brings peace to us." Hisa placed a hand on the raging teenagers shoulder

"Calm yourself Ami" she said softly.

"Mind control is a good idea in theory, but in real life the controller eventually becomes power crazy, however good their intentions in the beginning. Hisa is already showing the traits of becoming a power fanatic. Doesn't she ever seem more evil than normal?" he asked Ami.

"Never" she said, "She does what she needs to prove her point"

"Did she have to nearly kill Kurosaki to 'prove her point'?" Captain Kuchiki asked suddenly "She could have chosen many other methods to show that she was controlling Kurosaki but she chose that one."

"Maybe she did it to scare you?" said the smaller girl who was apparently called Kaori according to Ami's little rant earlier.

"Maybe I have changed then Urahara, I thought that that was the best method to show how serious I was" Hisa answered.

"I was right again, unfortunately. You haven't even noticed how power hungry you have become" Urahara felt sadness for Hisa, "I made an agreement with the Captain Commander that if I could get you to see what you have become then you would be made to free those under your control and then taken to prison for 200 years before being allowed back to active duty in the 12 th division"

"And if you could not get me to see?" Hisa asked with little interest

"Then you would be put to death" Urahara said.

"I believe that I am the same as I was when I was first exiled, and if that means you will try to kill me then you should try" Hisa challenged. Urahara sighed, Hisa has always been a forward thinker and that would be the cause of her death, it would be such a waste of a bright mind.

"Then so be it" he said and nodded to Captain Kuchiki.

"Begin Phase Two"

* * *

**A/N: ****Thank you to all my reviewers who asked me to update,**** if not for you I would have probably kept procrastinating. I finally managed to write this out, it's very difficult to do histories and plans like that because you can't give too much away. :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter even if it was more filling the gaps than actual action. Next chapter should have lots of fighting and kido :D **


	17. Phase Two

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Seventeen: Phase Two

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

* * *

**Outside POV**

The echo of the command faded and the Shinigami around the outside of the room that were not supplying the barrier with energy moved forward towards Hisa and her group. The 305 low level Shinigami starting moving around the floor, weaving in a out of the rocks to make a seemingly random pattern out on the floor surrounding the small group above them. They glanced at each other and, obviously satisfied of their placements, raised their hands to point at the group and started chanting:

"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws. Sokatsui! "

Hundreds of blue attacks flew up towards the Hisa, spreading out because of the sheer power and interacting with each other to either create a larger power or destroy each other in a deafening crash. Nanami grabbed Hisa along with Ami and they pulled her off the rock to get out of the way of the blasts, Kaori followed them along with Renji and Ichigo, knocking astray any kido attack that got too close to them. After the reiatsu cleared Ichigo and Renji jumped up to the rock to find that the number of Shinigami had increased. Along with Ukitake, Urahara, Kuchiki, and Hitsugaya there was now Kenpachi, Yumichika, Ikkaku, Rukia, Matsumoto and Soifon.

"Quite an assembly you have there Urahara" Hisa said as she reappeared behind the two.

"We need it if we have any chance of stopping our two Shinigami that you have stolen" Urahara told her, waving his fan about as he spoke.

"I don't think you have thought this out properly" Ichigo suddenly said, drawing the attention of everyone

"And why is that Kurosaki?" Kuchiki asked.

"If you kill Hisa-sama while we are linked to her there is a chance of us dying, we feel each others pain…if she died we would also feel that pain, if we were injured at the time of her death there is a high chance of us following her" Ichigo explained plainly and then stopped as Renji continued,

"We can share reiatsu, if she really wanted ta live she could drain us ta keep herself alive and tha would kill us. So…" Renji stopped and looked at Ichigo and Nanami who grinned back at him and they finished in unison "What are you going to do?"

The Shinigami looked shocked.

"You talk about your own deaths as if it is assured" Ukitake said

"If you fight us, it is" they chimed, the girls joining in to make a sick harmony.

"Then we will just have to kill Hisa quickly" Kenpachi boomed at them with a manic grin, "Then she won't have the chance to steal your power or make you feel pain"

"Or we could just win and then you won't have to worry about all that" Ami said, punching Ichigo in the arm "Don't give them false hope Ichi"

Ichigo just grinned at Ami in apology, his silvery eyes flashing slightly in the light.

"Enough of this" Hitsugaya said, "Phase Two is in effect, we shouldn't spend too long up here"

"Sounds good to me" Kenpachi said and drew his sword, "Mind if I take your opponent Hitsugaya?"

"Feel free, I've got my own to deal with" he said, drawing his sword and fixing Hisa with a glare.

"Byakuya-san, may I take your opponent also?" Ukitake inquired as he freed his sword from its sheath.

"That's the plan is it not?" Kuchiki said, looking towards Hisa with a calculating expression.

"Ichigo an me won't fight ya alone, we're a team" Renji told them as the two stepped forwards towards them,

"We are aware of that, but Kenpachi and I believe that we could fight you in a tag team battle and win" Ukitake said, "Shall we?" he asked, pointing towards the southern side of the room. The two shot Hisa a questioning look before following them.

In a sudden movement Soifon jumped forward and unleashed an attack on Ami who only managed to block because she already had her sword out from when she had been hiding them all before.

"You're my opponent" Soifon stated before attacking again and pushing her off the large rock towards the eastern side of the room.

Yumichika and Ikkaku drew their swords and pointed them at Nanami

"Hey kid, you're with us" Ikkaku said gruffly

"Two on one? How honourable" Nanami said icily at them but assented them and jumped off the rock towards the west side of the room.

Back at the middle rock, Hisa and Kaori were the only ones left in the face of Kuchiki, Hitsugaya, Urahara, Matsumoto and Rukia.

"_Hisa-sama, I'm worried that they are going to split us all up and gang up on us, we won't be able to protect you easily"_ Kaori told Hisa through the link

"_Relax my child, you have not seen me fight yet, but that does not mean I cannot. I only need to hold my own until you defeat your opponents and come back to my side…And plus, you do not need to be at my side to protect me; we can still share reiatsu and injuries. We will be victorious. Just focus on your battle" _Hisa told her, aware of the others listening in through the link but not calling them on it.

"Young lady? You are fighting us" Matsumoto said, motioning to herself and Rukia. Kaori nodded silently and turned away, shunpo'ing to the northern side of the room.

"So that leaves you three fighting me?" Hisa asked lighting as she withdrew her sword from its sheath.

"Actually its just those two" Urahara said motioning to the 6 th and 10 th captains standing stoically beside him.

"And what are you doing?" she asked

Urahara looked towards Ichigo who was talking to Ukitake, his words unheard by Urahara because of his distance away from him.

"I'm here just in case Ichigo decides that you need an extra person in your team" Urahara said before jumping down to the floor with the other Shinigami and raising his arms like the others had done.

"OKAY EVERYONE LET'S GET PHASE TWO GOING" He called to the whole room before starting the incantation with everyone else.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south...Shakkaho"

Red balls on energy shot at the separated people above them, every Shinigami aiming at a different person to the people nearest them. Ishida and Chad had their work cut out from them as they stopped the stray Kido attacks hitting the barrier that would cause a strain on the Shinigami maintaining it as they would shortly have attacks being thrown at it from all angles.

The kido attacks were going everyway, most of them aimed at Hisa's group and which meant that they had to keep an eye on Kido attacks as well as fighting their opponents.

"_This is more like 300 on two" _Ichigo told Ichigo as they dived away from each other to dodge three simultaneous attacks on them.

"_I know, we better get this fight over with quickly…or we could go down an take out those low level guys so we can focus" _Renji suggested. Ichigo agreed and they shunpo'ed down to the nearest Shinigami.

In a synchronized movement all the attacks were suddenly centred at the two.

"We forgot to tell you, if you go below a certain level then all the Shinigami will attack you at once, its more to protect themselves than anything but we thought that you may try to kill them all before fighting us" Ukitake explained. Renji muttered under his breath to Ichigo.

"Lets fight em first then; these attacks are going to get annoying"

Ichigo nodded and they took up positions near each other.

"BANKAI" they shouted. Renji and Ichigo were surrounded by reiatsu as their Bankai took shape. The kido attacks sent at them just exploded on contact with their reiatsu and when the smoke cleared both were in full Bankai. Renji and Ichigo stood together with Renji's Zambimaru curved around them protectively. Renji pulled his sword behind him and slashed forward, Zambimaru charged forward towards Ukitake who drew his sword and blocked. Ichigo appeared on his left in a sudden movement and slashed downwards on Ukitake's left side only to be blocked by Kenpachi.

"Leaving me out of the fun huh?" the psychopathic man asked and stabbed forward, Ichigo jumped backwards and shunpo'ed back to Renji.

"You are both going to have a hard time with this battle, neither of you plan your moves ahead" Ukitake told them.

"Neither does Kenpachi" Ichigo pointed out.

"We did plan in advance, a simple plan that we can both keep to" Ukitake stated, "While you both tend to make up plans on the spot, you are both still young, you haven't learned better yet."

Ichigo and Renji remained silent to Ukitake and Kenpachi but they were talking through the link.

"_I've fought Kenpachi before, that was before I learned to control Shiro, i'm more powerful now than I was then, I could take him on. Would you be able to fight Ukitake?" _Ichigo asked

"_Never tried, He's really powerful, very honourable in battle; he doesn't like to kill if he can help it. But he is very tactical and will probably guess that we are going to try and fight separately." _Renji told him swinging his sword a little, moving Zambimaru in front of them to block a few kido attacks.

"_May I suggest something?" _chimed Hisa from nowhere.

"_Of course Hisa-sama" _They said together.

"_They are fighting you in a tag team style because that is how you fight so it makes you think it is a trick. You are stronger as a team. I think you should attack together and focus on a single person; this will force the other to join in to protect him. But keep an eye on both of them in case they use your single focus to their advantage" _Hisa informed them and then fell silent, pulling away to focus on her own battle.

"_Sounds alright to me, you agree Renji?" _Ichigo asked with a mental grin at him.

"_Yeah, focus on Ukitake?" _

"_I think so; he's a thinker so we should keep him occupied so he won't form a plan." _

Plan made the two launched an attack, Ichigo ran around Ukitake at disorientating speeds while Renji used Baboon Bone Canon, he adjusted his position between attacks so as not to hit Ichigo who he was tracking in a way that can only be done after years of fighting together. Ichigo jumped forward for an attack whenever Renji shot his Baboon Cannon to give Ukitake two things to defend against at once, it gave the attacks a higher chance of hitting.

Kenpachi joined in where he could, blocking some of the more direct attacks from the Baboon Cannon and clashing swords with Ichigo. Kenpachi and Ukitake were back to back within the confusion of multiple attacks and kido assaults.

"Kenpachi, you know what to do" Ukitake muttered to him over the din. Kenpachi grinned manically and jumped out of the circle Ichigo had created with his constant circling. Kenpachi moved towards Renji and slashed his arm before Renji could react. Zambimaru was still attacking Ukitake and couldn't pull the sword back in time. Renji stopped the pain flowing down the link and put up a one sided block to stop any pain surging away from him, although sharing the pain diluted it, it was still too early in the battle to do such a thing.

Ichigo vanished from his rounds on Ukitake and went to defend Renji.

"_Keep Ukitake busy, keep attacking him and i'll get Kenpachi away"_ Ichigo told Renji as his sword clashed with Kenpachi's and they engaged in a very fast, close combat fight, barely visible to Renji, but he didn't try to watch, he just focused on Ukitake.

* * *

**A/N: Finally the next chapter is out and it's got action in it. Happy reading. Sorry for the delay ^.^ **


	18. Phase Three

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Eighteen: Phase Three

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold italics is Ichigo's hollow**_

**Outside POV**

* * *

In the centre of all the surrounding fights stood Kuchiki Byakuya and Hitsugaya Toshiro, standing shoulder to shoulder opposite Hisa, they had yet to make a move against her or even speak which suited Hisa fine as she tracked the various fights going on as well as the movements of the low level Shinigami below them.

"How interesting, being put against two of the best strategists that Soul Society has to offer…However you have not even tried to attack me, neither have those Shinigami down there even aimed in this direction. You must have a very intricate plan in operation here" Hisa mused

"We do" Hitsugaya said shortly

"I am glad to have you two as opponents, it will be a test of my power to outthink Soul Societies best" she said as she watching Nanami parry two separate attacks at once without a single injury. She was very proud of her small group of followers.

"I believe that you undermine us" Kuchiki said as she levelled his even gaze on to the beautiful woman.

"Maybe" she said offhandedly as she saw Kaori dive downwards to dodge six Kido attacks only to be met with all the grounded Shinigami to attack her.

"_if you have to dodge an attack I suggest you go upwards" _Hisa told her

"_Yes Hisa-sama" _came the hurried reply.

"You are not attacking yet because you are waiting for something, a signal perhaps?" Hisa asked as she continued to watch Kaori.

"Yes"

"Then I shall have to enjoy the show until that happens" she told them and turned away to watch Ami instead.

Over at the eastern side of the room Ami was fighting Soifon.

"I do not want to kill you; I will accept your surrender and spare your life if you do" Soifon told her as they crossed swords again.

"Normally you would kill anyone that stands in your way, yet you will not kill me?" Ami asked, diving backwards out of the way of a particularly well aimed Kid attack from below, Soifon seamlessly moved forwards as the attack dissipated, pushing her further away from Hisa.

"I assume you found that out from the two Shinigami your leader took from us. But yes under normal circumstances I would kill you without a second thought" Soifon told her and launched another attack which Ami couldn't block it time. The sword pierced her left arm which she had brought up to block the sword from hitting her chest. Ami hissed in pain but blocked it from affecting the others before bringing her sword in front of her self and drawing a circle

"Fly Ayumukagami" she spat through gritted teeth and disappeared

"You can't transport away from here" Soifon called to the area in general

"But I can transport within this area" Ami said, materializing behind her and throwing her sword out in a clumsy attack before vanishing again "And my sword also has the ability to make me invisible" she continued from somewhere to Soifon's left.

Soifon remained silent and waited on high alert for any movement to betray Ami's location.

"I just realised" Ami said from her right now "you won't kill me because you don't know what will happen to the others"

"True" Soifon conceded "but also because you are just a puppet for that woman and when we defeat her you will most likely make a good addition to our ranks"

Ami laughed from behind her and she spun around in time to block an attack before she faded away again.

"I will never join you corrupt Shinigami, not after what you did to Hisa-sama"

"We'll see if you still feel that way after Hisa is killed and you all return to yourselves".

The grounded Shinigami sent more attacks behind Soifon, forcing both of them to move forward and further away from the middle of the room.

On the ground, surrounded by Shinigami, Captain Kurotsuchi grinned

"The eastern fighters are within the designated area, the central fighters have not moved either and remain in the correct area" the mad 12 th captain announced to the nearest Shinigami who started passing the message among themselves. "However the southern, northern and western fighters are still out of range, make sure they get into the right place" he told them

The grounded Shinigami started moving again, some to the incorrectly placed fighters to force them into the right positions and others to their designated places for when Phase three activated.

In the western side of the room Nanami was busy holding off his two opponents, badly. The two Shinigami worked in tandem with each other, watching one another while the other attacked which made it hard for Nanami to do his sneak attacks.

"_This needs to be finished quickly, if this lasts too long then I'll lose. I don't have the stamina for long battles"_

Nanami pulled if sword in front of him and swung it in front of him

"Release Kasumi" he muttered and mist exploded out of his sword, enveloping his two adversaries and himself in a curtain of mist.

"_This also has the added benefit of protection from those Shinigami down there" _Nanami thought "_They won't fire aimlessly into the mist in case they hit their comrades" _

"How smart, this is good protection against the others" one of his enemies said with a flick of his hair. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Yumichika Ayasegawa, 5 th seat of the 11 th division"

"Ikkaku Madarame, 3 rd seat of the 11 th division" the other Shinigami grinned.

"Nanami" Nanami said in return as he stealthily moved behind them and then circled to Yumichikas left.

"No last name? No rank?" Yumichika asked. Nanami jumped forward silently and slashed at Yumichikas left shoulder, managing to get in a shallow cut before the other reacted and dived out of the way while simultaneously swinging out at Nanami's hand but just missing as he couldn't see him.

"No name or rank, we are all equal in Lady Hisa's eyes" Nanami said as he retreated and stood a few feet away from them.

"You okay Yumi?" Ikkaku asked his partner, searching the mist for him

"Fine Ikkaku" Yumichika answered blithely. "So Nanami, you believe that Hisa holds you at the same level as she holds Ichigo? He is so much more powerful than you"

"Your right he is, if we did have a rank then both Ichi and Ren would be higher than me, but we do not. Lady Hisa never gave us a rank. Therefore we are all equal to her" Nanami told them. He started as she heard the Kido incantations from below; he looked through the mist and saw them attacking one edge of the mist. Nanami moved back a few paces as he saw the two in front of him do that same, they had obviously heard the same thing as him.

"_Why are they only attacking one side of my release? Strategically speaking, attacking all of the sides would make it harder for me to keep up this consistency of mist and therefore make me weaker and more open to attack from these two… They must have another objective in mind" _

Nanami looked out through the mist and watched the other fights and worked out something about all of these fights.

"You aren't attacking us properly… none of you are…why?" Nanami demanded "You are all double-teaming us in a two-on-one battle expect for Ren and Ichi who are tag-teaming, but the only people fighting seriously are them."

"Very astute, you would do very well as a strategist" Yumichika applauded him, seriously.

"So tell me"

"These aren't properly battles, a two-on-one battle is not honourable at all, and I always fight honourably, Yumi too" Ikkaku told him.

"Our part of the plan is to keep you out of the way so the Captains over there can fight your leader" Yumichika explained, waving a hand at the figures on the tall rock in the centre of the room.

"Why are you telling me that? You know I can tell all the others through our link" Nanami told them

"Because even if you do it wouldn't matter, you are all fighting solely to get back to Hisa's side correct?" Yumichika waited for Nanami's confirmation before continuing "then knowing that our job to keep you away is useless information for your friends to know, and if you start trying harder to get back to her side then we will have to fight you seriously. And we don't want to kill you in case our friends that you have stolen die along with you."

Nanami looked over the battles and saw that Kaori was only fighting one of the women that had taken her off to fight, the other was standing back. He wanted to ask what was happening but refrained.

"Will you kill me if you know that it will not kill the others?" Nanami asked eventually

"It won't?" Ikkaku asked for verification

"If one of the Lady's followers died then the others would not die, although the others would feel every second of the death as though it was their own"

"And if it was Hisa?" Ikkaku prompted

"The Lady is different; the rules are different for her. I am not sure of our fate if it was her that died. We are all deeply connected to her; our connections with each other are through her so if one of us dies maybe she stops the death travelling to the others with a barrier of some kind, she also uses a barrier to stop the pain we feel travelling to her directly, she can redirect it if needed." Nanami explained

"So she is like the spider in the middle of the web and you are the trapped insects?" Ikkaku said eventually and Yumichika agreed with him,

"Why are you telling us this?" Yumichika asked, echoing Nanami's earlier confusion.

Nanami allowed himself a little grin "Because you said you have to stay here with me so I cannot go back to the Lady's side, which means that the information you now know cannot be shared unless you are willing to leave me with just one of you, and I am fast enough to outrun you to reach her again if you were not both here to stop me."

Yumichika and Ikkaku both looked a little shocked but Nanami did not comment on that. "And obviously this is not a fight that I will be a part of. So I will just have to remain out of the way until Lady Hisa wins and lets us go"

"And what if she loses?" Ikkaku asked, lowering his sword fractionally

"Then there is a chance that all of her followers will die in which case I don't need to worry, but if we survive then we will have to run or be caught by you Shinigami, I don't know yet. We will have to cross that bridge when we come to it." Nanami told them. Moving back further as the Kido attacks started moving closer to them.

"I will calmly observe until something prompts me to do otherwise, in which case I will fight you with all my power and will" he informed them.

"Hey Ikkaku, we got the smart one here. He's going to conserve his strength rather than pointlessly fighting us, who would cause him only injury and loss. Better for us too as we get front row seats to the main battle" Yumichika told him excitedly, even though Nanami was only a few feet away and could here himself being talked about.

"That's only good if the boy gets rid of this mist. We can't see anything at the moment" Ikkaku told him. Yumichika pouted and turned to where he though Nanami was again

"So? Will you dispel the mist so we can see?" he asked him hopefully

"_I feel like I'm with a child" _Nanami thought as he sheathed his weapon and the mist slowly receded.

"I know you said you were going to observe but we have to make sure" Ikkaku said and moved to stand by his left and Yumichika did the same on his right. "Its good you're a smart kid, I didn't want to lose my honour by killing an opponent unfairly." The bald Shinigami muttered, more to himself than Nanami.

"West is in position" Kurotsuchi informed the Shinigami "Looks like they are not fighting, they must have talked him out of it somehow. Don't bother with the Kido attacks anymore unless they move from there" The captain reported and watched as the instructions moved between the Shinigami like wildfire.

The Captain looked the North and Southern sides of the room and saw the Human and Quincy still operating their part of the plan perfectly, the outside barrier was still intact despite the sheer amount of attacks that have gone off course or missed their targets and streaked towards the ceiling instead. All the stray attacks had been dealt with quickly and efficiently. Ishida and Chad had both positioned themselves in the perfect position to deal with the attacks without having to move about and waste energy.

The Kido attacks suddenly decreased a fraction, causing Kurotsuchi to look up and around quickly for the source. He grinned manically; the Shinigami had pushed the last two fights into the right position.

"PHASE THREE, LETS GET IT GOING" Kurotsuchi yelled into the room

Ichigo and Renji looked at each other as they heard the yell, listening into Nanami's conversation had made it glaringly obvious that these fights were meant to hold them back, but what if the Shinigami lost? Then the two of them would be free to launch a sneak attack at the Captains and help Hisa. That meant that they had another way to hold them away from the fight in case they beat their opponents.

"Phase three?" Renji asked Ichigo

"Phase one was the barrier to stop us leaving the basement, Phase two was herding us away from Hisa-sama, so Phase three must be a barrier of some kind to stop us getting back to her." Ichigo deduced. Renji looked down at the Shinigami on the floor

"They've made circles around us, and look, around Ami, and Nanami, Kaori must have one too. They're locking us in a barrier with our opponents!" Renji cried and they both turned to leave.

"I'm sorry we cannot let you leave" Ukitake said, appearing in front of them with Kenpachi. Ichigo tried to shunpo around Ukitake but was forced back with four kid attacks from below.

"**King? Can I come out now?" **Called his hollow, sounding smug.

"_Fine Shiro, I'll start moving towards the outside and I'll go to the left of the kido attacks, you materialise and go right. They might not notice you slip past if I keep moving"_ Ichigo told him as he jumped forwards and looked down at the Shinigami to try and find a weakness between them.

"**Am I looking after the Queen?" **

"_Yes, protect her at all costs, her death might mean the death of us all. We'll join you as soon as we can" _Ichigo said and then shunpo'ed forwards as fast as possible, this time six kido attacks were blasted in his direction and he dived to the left, feeling the pull of half his soul going right. Shiro pulled away from him the second he started dodging left and used the distraction to go up a few feet with the attacks and then shunpo'ed to their right and towards Hisa while the Shinigami below all followed Ichigo with the attacks, except Urahara who jumped up to meet him between the area when the barriers were to be put up.

"NOW" cried Kurotsuchi from below them and all three hundred and five Shinigami on the ground dropped into a crouch and put their hands around a small wire on the ground that was nearly invisible, and simultaneously poured their reiatsu into it forming a larger square barrier around each of the five fights leaving a no-mans-land in the between the barriers. The Shinigami were all outside the barriers, keeping them active with their reiatsu and supposedly safe. But they had not counted on Shiro appearing and none of them could move otherwise the barriers would drop.

"Ichigo's hollow, how lovely to see you after all this time" Urahara said pleasantly as Shiro looked around at the barriers

"Ha, you didn't think this one through Shinigami, I'm out here with all of there vulnerable Shinigami. Seems like I've ruined the whole barrier plan" Shiro said.

"Not at all, I thought this would happen which is why I am here, Chad and Ishida are also in this area, so if you do manage to incapacitate me then they are here to back me up. We also have a healer hiding here too so I can be healed as much as I like if you do injure me" Urahara explained airily.

"_Just fight Shiro, your speciality; if you incapacitate him, even for a little while, it will take a few seconds for Chad or Ishida to respond and you can take out the Shinigami holding these barriers up" _Ichigo told him. Shiro nodded with a huge evil grin on his face.

"This will be fun, Shinigami" Shiro told Urahara, drawing his sword.

* * *

**A/N: This took a long time I know, these scenes are hard to write in a way that makes sense and it took me a long time to start it. The next instalment should be faster now we've got past the explanation/fighting bit. **

**Tell me if it doesn't make sense and I'll re-write it but the basic outline is there are 305 Shinigami holding the big barrier up and then 305 Shinigami split up into five groups holding up a barrier around each of the fights, Ichigo/Renji, Nanami, Ami, Kaori and Hisa. And Shiro is in the middle with Urahara. **

**To make up for being late this chapter is about 1000 words longer :) Happy reading.**


	19. Time, Start

Disclaimer: Not mine, I can wish….but no :(

Setting: After Winter War

Chapter Nineteen: Time, Start

Note:

_Italics is thinking_

_**Bold Italics is Ichigo's Hollow**_

The materialisation of the barriers was the signal Captain Kuchiki and Captain Histugaya were waiting for. They lifted their swords and launched into a flurry of attacks in perfect synchronicity born from years of working together. Hisa withdrew her sword quickly, letting the thin blade glint for a second before it clashed with the Captains' swords. The movement from her sword caused the nine ribbons on the end of her sword hilt to flutter wildly and glitter; distracting the two men long enough for her to jump back and out of range of the attacks.

"So this was your plan? How interesting" Hisa said as she looked at the barrier "I've never seen a barrier like this before. Was it made for the sole purpose of catching us?"

"It was created by Captain Kurotsuchi and Urahara" The tenth captain told her.

"It needs so many to make it powerful enough to stop us from escaping, such a flaw in your plan if those Shinigami were to be injured" she said sweetly as she twirled her sword around, seemingly unworried by the situation.

"Which is why they are outside the barriers" Kuchiki said.

"I wonder how long they can continue pouring in that much reaitsu" Hisa mused, glancing up to see her opponents exchange looks, "There is a time limit then" she said with glee, passing the information down the link to her followers "Which could be lessened by attacks on the barrier itself I would assume."

Kuchiki exchanged a small grin with Hitsugaya.

"That time limit exceeds the time it will take to kill you," he said and turned his sword to point at Hisa. "Scatter Senbonzakura." The sword exploded into tiny pink-looking blades and shot towards the young woman. Hisa jumped up and evaded the blades but Kuchiki was already directing the blades up with the hilt of his sword and they caught her legs. "Live, inju!" she gasped.

Her command echoed around them as the ribbons on the hilt of her sword started moving on their own and wrapped around her legs, protecting them from the piercing blades. She pushed the pain down the link but kept the injuries herself.

"Fascinating shikai you have there" Hitsugaya commented from behind Kuchiki as the 6 th Captain concentrated on attacking.

"My ribbons can be controlled by my mind, much like Kuchiki's Shikai and Bankai" Hisa told him as she swept past in a fast paced shunpo, "Remember we can share thoughts" she added when she saw the surprise on his face.

Suddenly Hisa felt pain shoot past the filter in her mind; telling her someone was injured and had passed the pain down the link to the other followers.

"_Who's injured?_" she passed down the link, following the sweep of pain.

"_Me, Hisa-sama" _came Ami's voice. Hisa looked to the east and saw Ami with her back to the barrier with Soifon bearing down on her with her sword.

"_Dive" _Hisa commanded and watched as Ami let herself fall out of range of the sword. _"I thought she wasn't going to hurt you too much in case it hurt Ichi and Ren?" _Hisa asked, aware that she had stopped in mid air but was not being attacked as the two Shinigami Captains watched her with interest.

"_After the barriers went up I realised what was happening and tried to break the barrier to get back to your side, I think that means I'm a threat now. She is trying to disable me from fighting." _Ami explained quickly as she righted herself and then vanished using her shikai.

"_Then you will have to fight, she will not trust you if you stop" _Hisa told her.

"_Yes Hisa-sama" _Ami replied. Hisa sent another look in her direction before starting moving again.

"Problems?" Hitsugaya asked smugly, having seen the concern on her face

"Nothing we can't handle" Hisa told him stiffly as Kuchiki resumed his attacks and she started moving again.

**Ami's POV**

Ami quietly flitted around Soifon, the fighting between them had become serious after she had tried to destroy the barrier.

"So you're going to try and kill me huh? What if it kills the others?" Ami asked and the moved as Soifon turned towards her and jumped forward to attack. The Shinigami couldn't see her but she was very quick to react.

"I can't let you break the barrier at any costs, I will try not to kill you but as head of Covert Ops it is in my nature to do so" Soifon told her "If I do kill you, it will be quick and that should hopefully stop your death spreading to the others"

"And if it doesn't?"

"I will take that risk, I have no choice if I wish to stop you" the Captain told her seriously.

"_Doesn't do things in halves does she!" _Ami thought to herself

"_She's merciless Ami, be careful. She's well-known in Soul Society for being ruthless with rules. She's even attacked her own squad members." _Renji warned through the link.

Ami focused on Soifon again, watching her stand still, waiting for Ami to betray her position.

"I should get this over with, I shouldn't be playing with you, you have made it clear you hate Shinigami even without Hisa's influence" Soifon told her "Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi" she intoned, releasing her shikai.

"_Is she really going to kill me? Well I won't go down without a fight." _Ami thought.

She looked at the wound on her thigh then broadcasted a thought:

"_Will one of you take this for me? I need full movement to live through this"_

"_I will"_ Nanami replied quickly _"I'm not fighting"_

Ami quickly pushed the wound through the link and turned back to Soifon, standing in her shikai uniform, ready to fight to the death.

Over in West side of the room Ikkaku and Yumichika was shocked when Nanami, standing silently between them, suddenly started bleeding from his thigh.

"What the heck?" Ikkaku asked, motioning to the injury

"It's Ami's, she's fighting seriously with her opponent, and she needs full motion to be able to fight properly." Nanami looked up at them to see them exchange a glance "What?"

"We hate to break it to you kid, but your friend won't survive against Captain Soifon, she's brutal, she would fit in well in the 11th division"

"You underestimate Ami, she will be fine," Nanami told them confidently, following the fights through the link as the only one of Hisa's followers not fighting and able to watch.

He suddenly doubled over, clutching his left arm.

"Can't you just stop the pain being transmitted from that Ami girl?" Ikkaku asked

"No I can't, and it's not Ami, its Kaori" Nanami panted.

Isn't that young lady fighting against Matsumoto and Rukia? I cannot see them harming her too badly, especially because of our orders." Yumichika said, flicking his hair back with an air of importance and knowing. He looked down to see Nanami standing stock still with his eyes closed.

"Heh" he said with a little laugh "Only Kaori" he mumbled, but did not elaborate when the two Shinigami looked at him questioningly

Kaori jumped upwards to avoid Matsumoto's sword and grinned down at her,

"I think you're getting too old for this type of thing" Kaori taunted in a gentle voice, Matsumoto gave her an affronted look and shunpo'ed to the spot behind her, cutting her right forearm

"I can't be that old if i've manage to cut you twice" Matsumoto told her.

Kaori smiled obligingly at her in a way that young children often did to their elders when they didn't understand something from the young generation, a very condescending look which enraged Matsumoto.

"Rukia, you deal with this brat" Matsumoto said.

Kaori was especially good at reading people, a trait that Hisa-sama had nurtured to help in her plans. She had quickly noticed Matsumoto's efforts to look young with her clothing and speech and figured it was because she hated the idea of being old; it turned out to be the correct deduction. Goading Matsumoto had very quickly made her sloppy enough for Kaori to dodge some of the more dangerous attacks, although the Shinigami was very talented, she wouldn't last against her much longer.

The short young woman came forward at Matusmoto's call.

"_They won't attack me together? I wonder why, I would not be able to win against the two of them, they must know that" _Kaori thought as the dark haired lady stood in front of her, seemingly just sizing her up.

_These Shinigami seem to have a code of honour" _Nanami said across the link. _"The ones who I should be fighting think its dishonourable to fight two against one, maybe your Shinigami believe the same"_

"_That is probably correct, it's better this way, Hisa-sama did mention a time limit, and we only need to survive until then" _Kaori told him and received a non verbal confirmation

"_I'm not even fighting; I think I might be able to wait out the time limit without getting too badly injured. When the barrier lowers I can take these two Shinigami by surprise and get back to Lady Hisa's side"_

"_Good plan" _Kaori agreed _"Keep an eye on Ichi, Renji and Ami, you know how trigger happy they can get" _she added and let the link dissolve into the back of her mind so she could concentrate on the fight ahead of her.

"Miss" the dark haired Shinigami started "We don't want to kill you"

"I find that hard to believe, the Shinigami fighting Ami seems to be making a good shot at it" Kaori shot back, her calm demeanour fading as she felt a stab of pain on her shoulder from Ami, she squinted through the barrier to the east and saw Ami sporting a black butterfly marking on her shoulder where she had felt the pain. "What is that marking on Ami's shoulder?" she asked commandingly

The two Shinigami looked over towards the mentioned party while Kaori waited, she would not attack until she had answers.

"That..." Matsumoto started "That is the Captains' Shikai, it marks an opponent where she hits them, if she hits twice in the exact same place then the opponent dies" Matsumoto explained, obviously shortening the explanation.

"_Ami's vulnerable where that butterfly is on her shoulder" _Kaori quickly passed down the link to Hisa and Nanami "_Ami, can you pass that mark to one of us? It's only that Shinigami that can use it to kill you, as it is her Shikai" _she waited with impatience until the other black haired girl replied, watching her two opponents while she did so.

"_I can't Kaori, It's a poison of some type and its infused with my blood, I can't separate it from my blood, and the mark seems to be some concentration of the poison, it feels like it's clamped to my skin, it won't pull away"_ Ami answered quickly through the link and Kaori watched her disappear using her swords ability again.

"_Be careful Ami" _she thought before concentrating on her battle again, knowing that Nanami was keeping an eye on things.

"I'm Kuchiki Rukia, of the 13th division" the dark haired girl introduced herself,

"I'm assuming as you've told me your name we shall fight now? Is it a custom for Shinigami to introduce themselves?" Kaori asked, flinching as she felt a stab on her leg and flicking her eyes up to Ami again, another mark, but not in the same place.

"Yes, and as you have not received a mark from Captain Soifon then you must not be affected by her attack, so we can safely assume you will not all die if one of you does" Kuchiki explained.

"Are you going to test that?" Kaori asked, not quite aggressively but not calmly either.

"We will try to spare your life but if you keeping fighting we may have to" Kuchiki said with a hint of regret adorning her face.

Kaori let a serious expression fall onto her face and got her sword ready before jumping into battle, only finding that she was against kido attacks, she backed off and dodged, hoping the kido would disrupt the barriers.

Ichigo and Renji kept half an ear on the conversations going along the link but spared little attention on it as their battle was more intense than the others going on around them. The injuries so far were superficial , Ichigo was a close range fighter in Bankai while Renji was a long fighter in Bankai and they complimented each other nicely and managed to protect the other very easily.

Their opponents on the other hand were both relatively short range fighters, but had the advantage of one of them being able to use kido with some proficiency.

They were so far on an even level for fighting, but they were slowly overpowering Ukitake and Kenpachi through teamwork and synchronised attacks.

That was until all of Hisa's followers froze mid attack and began to fall from their places in the air.

And hell broke loose

**A/N: I know I haven't updated in ages, New term started and I have to work this year or risk failing more than I did last year. This story will be finished I promise that, it may take a bit of time. We're nearing the end now, this is the final fight if you hadn't already guessed, but I fail with fight scenes so I procrastinate lots before writing them. Now that bit is out of the way with the explanations I know what I'm writing so the next chapter should be pretty soon. Enjoy**

**PS: Sorry if it's confusing to read, the line breaks have a tendancy to not work**


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